This indoor air-conditioned active excavation site features over 60 mammoths displayed where they were found and Ice Age exhibit hall displaying a walk-in mammoth bone shelter, giant short-faced bear, an American lion and Lyuba the baby mammoth.
Mammoth bones were accidentally found in 1974 as a bulldozer operator was preparing the site for a new housing project. Since then more than 50 Columbian and woolly mammoths have been found, many were left in the ground just as they were found so that you can see a working dig site in action.
Usually when we think of mammoths we think of the Ice Age. So, how do mammoths and the Ice Age fit into the Biblical framework?
Two factors result in an ice age: 1. Increased snowfall and 2. Cooler summers.
With more snowfall and less of it melting during the summer due to cooler temperatures, snow would build up and compress into ice. But what conditions would create increased snowfall and cooler summers? The Flood of Noah’s day. When “the fountains of the deep burst open” and flooded the earth, this would have warmed the ocean waters greatly, couple this with much volcanic activity. The volcanic dust would have filled the sky and blocked out the sun’s warming rays causing the land mass to be cool enough so the snow would not melt. The warmer oceans would cause lots of evaporation and winds would carry the moisture onto the cold continents. The cold continents would cause the moist air to condense and fall as snow. Snow on the ground would not melt during the summer. Each year the snow would build up. Just after the Flood, ice sheets would have formed quickly around the world in the higher latitudes such as Greenland and North America. At its height, the ice sheets would have only covered 1/3 of earth’s landmass. The southern edge of one of the ice sheets would have been in South Dakota. As the earth settled down and the volcanoes stopped erupting, the volcanic dust would dissipate out of the air, eventually the sun would shine on those ice sheets and the snow would melt. Creation scientists have calculated the Ice Age to last for 700 years, 500 years to build up and 200 years to melt down. What causes an ice age? Very special conditions. An ice age needs lots and lots of warm water and cooler continents. What event in history would have these two ingredients? The Flood of Noah’s time.
What are mammoths?
Mammoths are essentially hairy elephants with a large shoulder hump, a sloping back, small ears, short tail and possessing curved tusks up to 11 feet long. Mammoths are of the elephant kind. Noah took 2 of each kind on board the ark. After the elephant kind left the ark, they repopulated the earth. As their numbers increased, some moved into Africa and became the African elephants, some into India and became the Indian elephants. The four basic elephants are African, Indian, mammoth, mastodon. Mammoths can be broken down further into woolly mammoth, steppe mammoth, Imperial mammoth, and Columbian mammoth. Just as we have a variety of dogs from Great Dane to poodle, we have variety within the elephant kind. Many of the mammoths into Siberia crossed the land bridge (today the Bering Strait) and traveled south into the United States. Many have wondered what froze the woolly mammoths in Siberia and Alaska. Their frozen remains are estimated to be in the millions. After the flood of Noah’s day, the far north would have been much warmer. The Arctic Ocean would have been very warm due to the fountains of the deep bursting forth and the multitude of volcanic eruptions. This warmth brought abundant rains and vegetation to the mammoths’ region and a subsequent mammoth population explosion. In the later stages of the Ice Age, the climate started to change, vegetation decreased, causing the mammoths to starve. In Siberia in 1977, a frozen baby mammoth was dug up showing severe signs of starvation. Many of the mammoths starved to death and died, leaving behind millions upon millions of bones. As the earth warmed, glacial ice melted. In Siberia, great rivers flowed northward causing erosion and deposition. Many woolly mammoth remains were buried in muck and gravel. Then the northern regions gradually became frozen and have remained so ever since. Other bones and emaciated mammoths were covered by gigantic dust storms that were result of the climate drying out and temperature changes. Many of the mammoths and other animals are found buried in wind-blown silt (loess).
Oard, Michael. 2004. Frozen in Time: The Woolly Mammoth, the Ice Age and the Bible. Master Books: Green Forest, AR.
DeYoung, Donald. 1992. Weather and the Bible. Baker Book House: Grand Rapids, MI. p.118-119.
In the United States, south of the great ice sheet, animals thrived, for this was a well watered place with much vegetation. That is why we find remains of camels, llamas, giant short-faced bear, and mammoths. At the end of the one and only Ice Age (about 3,500 years ago), large animals went extinct, such as giant sloths and saber-toothed tigers. In fact, worldwide, 70% of all large mammals over 100 pounds disappeared. Many large carrion birds also disappeared. Why? When we put on our Biblical glasses, we find that as the oceans cooled to today’s temperature, evaporation, and precipitation onto the continents would have been less. Also, at the end of the Ice Age, the volcanic dust would have dissipated out of the skies and some of the land masses would have become warmer and some like Siberia would have become colder. The climate was changing. The earth was drying out. Many of the once well-watered parts of the earth were drying out (like Australia, Sahara, Southwestern USA), reducing the food supply for large mammals. Without enough food, mass death resulted. Once the large plant eating mammals died, the large carrion eating birds would also be reduced in number. The end of the Ice Age resulted in the mass extinction of many animals.
What was the Great Plains like during the Ice Age like? Take a look at what we find at Mammoth Hot Springs. Mammoth Hot Springs is like a time capsule of that period. Paleontologists have uncovered the bones of camels, llamas, giant short-face bear, wolves, coyotes, Columbian mammoths and woolly mammoths plus more creatures. At the end of the Ice Age, the Great Plains was drying out. Here at Mammoth Hot Springs, thirsty Ice Age animals would have gathered at the watering hole. This watering hole proved to be a death trap as these animals could not get a footing on the steep-sided pond as they tried to get out.
As you look upon these mammoths, an Ice Age animal, think of how the Flood (2348 B.C.) caused the one and only Ice Age.
Recommend books: Life in the Great Ice Age by Michael Oard.
Uncovering the Mysterious Woolly Mammoth: Life at the End of the Great Ice Age, by Michael and Beverly Oard.
More technical book Frozen in Time: The Woolly Mammoth, Ice Age, and the Bible by Michael Oard.