REMAINS OF AN ANCIENT BEAST

Did you know... they found a mastodon in Amaranth?

In 1887, William Jelly began a routine ditch digging on his farm in Bowling Green with a few other men. However, the men unearthed an ancient beast below the earth waiting patiently for thousands of years to be discovered. The men had discovered the nearly complete remains of a mastodon or mammoth. The bones were excavated and compiled when John Jelly, the cousin of William, took the bones to Shelburne to be displayed in the Royal Block. The mammoth was missing part of one of the front legs but was for the most part intact. To put the scale of the beast in perspective, the bones were measured and weighed. A single tooth was over 16 pounds and was almost the size of a man’s head. The tusks were measured at 12 feet and 8 inches in length as well as being 8 inches around, and the ribs were measured to be 50 inches long and 11 inches in circumference. The tusk was also weighed in at around 200 pounds. The farm where the mammoth was found was located on Lot 9, Con. 7 in Amaranth.