Imagine walking your dog along the shoreline of your favorite nearby lake and coming across some exposed bones on the beach. Normally, it would be the carcass of a carp or an old cow leg bone. But last month a Cody, Wyoming, resident was walking along the shore of Buffalo Bill Reservoir when he stumbled upon what turned out to be the remains of a mammoth. Mammoths went extinct thousands of years ago, possibly because of climate change or from too much human hunting pressure. So there is a possibility that this animal was killed by ancient people who lived in the Cody area thousands of years ago. Because the reservoir was drawn down for spring runoff and scheduled to rise, archaeologists swept in last week and quickly collected as much of the old bones as possible.
To read more about this unusual find, check out my story in Montana Untamed at
(written by Brett French – Outdoors Editor for the Billings Gazette/Montana Untamed)
