Hopefully, the specimen will be of use to people studying the life of the ice age in this area. . . . . The museum is grateful that the Ardsley mammoth is here. —Earl Manning, Department of Vertebrate Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History, New York City, October 24, 1974
Bones represented in the Ardsley mammoth are in black.
Remnants of previous and diverse cultures—from indigenous people to colonial citizens—have been found in the Rivertowns. Did you know, however, about a more mammoth find in the Rivertowns? Namely, a Columbian mammoth from the late Ice Age?
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In the fall of 1974, workmen excavating a backyard for an addition on a Huntley Drive home in Ardsley uncovered the mammoth bones in a nine-foot pit. At first, the work crew thought they had hit a tree stump before the bones, which they thought might belong to a large animal such as a horse, came into view. The workmen subsequently spent hours searching for additional bones. Although an intact skeleton was not found, several bones such as the lower jaw—including a tooth the size of a man’s fist that weighed five pounds—neck, shoulder blade, upper forelimb, partial pelvis, 20 ribs, upper leg bone, and knee cap were mired in the ground. Noticeably missing were the skull and tusks.
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Images from The Record of Greenburgh, page 8, October 1974
The Herald Statesman, precursor of today’s Journal News, reported the find the next day in its October 10 edition. A curator from the Bronx Zoo present at the dig site noted that a mammoth find was rare, as mastodons were twice as likely to be found in the region. A week later, paleontologists from the American Museum of Natural History in New York City confirmed, through laboratory analysis and carbon data testing, that the bones were from a Mammuthus primigenius or Columbian mammoth 10,000 to 15,000 years old from the late Rancholabrean period. The museum identified the remains as “a very small young adult mammoth, [its] size may indicate a female” that were well-preserved in the swampland that had trapped it after glaciers had retreated from the area. The paleontologists visited the site to determine whether more bones remained in the pit and noted that the Ardsley mammoth is “one of the more complete New York mammoths” and its “occurrence in eastern New York is unusual. They are more common in the western and central parts of the state.”
Author’s note: Thank you to Peter Marcus, president of the Ardsley Historical Society, for supplying information from its archives.