GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — It’s 13,000 years in the making to get where we are today at the Grand Rapids Public Museum.
“Our neighbor came and said they found a dinosaur on your property,” Courtney Clapp said.
It wasn't a dinosaur, but a moment the Clapp family tells me they won't ever forget.
“It's kind of crazy still, and now I'm gonna get teary-eyed,” Clapp said. “We found a mastodon, and this is what we need to do next. We spent all day until it was dark, on digging and unearthing everything.”
Three years ago, I shared with you the work that made this moment a reality.
WATCH MASTODON REVEAL
“I’m happy it's here. I'm happy we're finally to this point, and I'm really excited for tonight and to see it kind of all put together,” Clapp said.
In 2022, over 130 bones were found on the Clapp family property as crews worked on a nearby road. The family then donated what was found to the Grand Rapids Public Museum.
“We know he's 70% complete. We know it's a male. We've been able to radiocarbon date it. So we know he died 13,210 years ago. So you're looking at kind of the end of the end of the last ice age,” Grand Rapids Public Museum Science Curator De. Corey Redman said.
Redman shared that when they first found the bones, they knew the animal had not died there.
“We know that the bones were almost certainly transported some distance after the animal died, just because they were kind of in a jumbled-up mix. They weren't found in a life position like the animal lay down and then was buried.”
I first met Dr. Redman after the bones were found. Back then, he showed me the preservation process, which includes something you may have in your own kitchen: a Ziplock bag.
“You want the bones to dry as evenly, both inside and outside, as possible, so they don't break, they don't deform,” Dr. Redman said.
After extensive work, a full-scale mastodon replica is on display. You can see a lot of the actual bones right next to it.
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“Come see it,” Clapp said.
This display is now open to the public right here by the front entrance.
After the donation to the museum, the Clapp family received a lifetime membership to the museum.
