Mastodon Teeth

Written by Jenna Damore

 

NPS Photo

We are frequently asked about the fossilized mastodon teeth displayed in the Jefferson’s Vision gallery. These teeth have been displayed on our collection since 2018. They are on loan from J. Frederick Fausz. Mastodons were one of the hottest new scientific discoveries in early 18th century North America.

The mastodon roamed throughout North America starting around 5 million years ago, and became extinct over 11,000 years ago, possibly due to changing climates following the last Ice Age and possibly due to hunting by the first peoples on this continent.

Western scientists first learned about mastodons in 1739, when a French military expedition at Big Bone Lick in modern day Kentucky was presented the bones and teeth of an enormous creature by their Native American guides, the Abenaki.

These remains had naturalists at this time confused, as the bones resembled those of an elephant, while the teeth found looked like those of a hippo. In 1799 similar bones and teeth were found in the Hudson Valley area of New York and were later given the temporary name Mammut for their similar appearance to the extinct Wooly Mammoth discovered in Siberia.

Thomas Jefferson rushed to try to buy the fossils, but was prevented by Charles Willson Peale, an artist and naturalist, who bought the bones in 1801 for 200 dollars, which today is the equivalent of 4000 dollars. He also bought the rights to excavate the farmlands the remains were found on for an additional 100 dollars. This site is today listed as “Peale’s Barber Farm Mastodon Exhumation Site” in the National Register of Historic Places.

The discovery of mastodons helped kick-start the field of paleontology and piqued Thomas Jefferson’s curiosity about finding this animal in the West. Jefferson instructed Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to look for these giant beasts while on their Corps of Discovery expedition. Lewis met with a leading expert on Mastodons and wrote a letter to Jefferson about his analysis of mastodon bones in preparation for the journey. However, during Lewis and Clark’s Journey west, they did not find any evidence of living or dead mastodons.

In 1807, Jefferson sponsored another journey led by William Clark, to Big Bone Lick in Kentucky to examine and send back mastodon remains. Clark sent back three boxes of fossils to Jefferson to study and catalogue, along with his written observations. Jefferson then dedicated a room in the White House to display these fossils.

Due to its historical significance and importance to the paleontology community, Big Bone Lick is now a Kentucky State Historic Site and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places in the United States. The teeth displayed in our museum are some of many Mastodon teeth and fossils excavated here in North America, and shown in early museums all over the world, including William Clark’s Museum which was on the grounds where the Arch is today. Despite not finding any creatures like the mastodon in the West, Lewis and Clark documented over 100 new animal species and almost 200 new plants during their journey to the Pacific Ocean.

When you visit the mastodon teeth in the museum, imagine the curiosity that people might have felt as new fossils of these enormous creatures appeared across the United States.