Circleville is in the Town of Wallkill, Orange County, on the west side of the Hudson River. Another mastodon was dug up in 1952 at Harriman, also in Orange County about 20 miles s.e of Circleville and now housed at Museum Village in Monroe.
Possibly Museum Village has records about other mastodon discoveries. You might also contact the American Museum of Natural History. I will forward your e-mail to appropriate staff at the New York State Museum.
The following brief excerpt from Museum Village's web site, www.museumvillage.org, describes the Smith mastodont and alludes to other mastodons found in Orange County:
MASTODON EXHIBIT
Our mastodon exhibit is housed in the Natural History building. You can view the most complete mastodon specimen in New York State. Also on display is the giant Megatherium americanum, a close relative of the modern tree sloth, which lived 11,000 years ago.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE SMITH MASTODON
by
ROSCOE W. SMITH
The mastodon bones were found June 15, 1952 in a little black dirt meadow...on Route 17M at Harriman on land owned by Mrs. Edith Loostron by contractors Garcia and Leinweber of Warwick when they were cleaning and widening a drainage ditch with a gasoline engine driven shovel or loader.
The ditch was originally dug by hand shovel many years before and had gradually filled with sediment or dirt. The gas shovel had a wider bucket than a shovel and the bones were so close to the old handmade ditch that their scoop or shovel threw out one-half of the lower jaw, two leg bones and a rib. These were picked up and washed and taken up to Arden House, owned and used by Columbia University and shown there. No particular interest being shown, they then took them home to Warwick. The Warwick Dispatch photographed them and published a short news article and picture of the bones.
About fifteen minutes after the bones were found, I learned of the find and on June 21, 1952, I made arrangements with Mrs. Edith Loostron, owner of the meadow land to dig for bones and to have all found. Of course great interest was shown by the people of the Village and especially by the school children who flocked to the scene and all wanted to dig for mastodon bones. Night and day watchmen were employed to protect the area and digging for bones and photographing commenced immediately.
The American Museum of Natural History was contacted and told of the find and asked if they could furnish an expert to supervise the excavating and taking out the bones. Mr. W. E. Fish came immediately and digging started. The entire skeleton was unearthed at a depth of about four feet on a clay bottom. It was very difficult to keep the children from digging and finally we let them do so and paid them small amounts for bones found by them. The excitement was great and it was soon discovered that several children were finding and hiding bones nearby in the bushes and afterward taking them home or giving away or selling them.
Orange County has long been noted as the home of mastodons because of the large number of bones being found in various parts of the county. Seldom have more than a few scattered bones been found and we are told it is because the ice age scattered them as the ice caps moved down the valleys.
<snip>
David W. Palmquist
Head, Chartering Program
NY State Museum
State Education Department
3090 Cultural Education Center
Albany NY 12230
518-473-3131
FAX 518-473-8496
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
web site: www.nysm.nysed.gov/charter/
>>> [log in to unmask] 05/25/01 03:32PM >>>
I have an inquiry regarding a mastodon skeleton that was excavated in
Circleville, NY (in the Hudson Valley). I don't have an exact date on
the discovery, but I do know when it went missing. The mastodon was in
Vassar College's collection in Poughkeepsie, NY. Sometime in the 1980s
it was donated, sold, gifted, or disposed of in some way. No one at the
College seems to know what happened to it. There are, of course, rumors
and legends, but the only first-hand knowledge that it was taken out of
the collection in the last 20 years. I'm hoping someone will recognize
the name or--better yet--say that it resides in a natural history
collection somewhere. There are no plans for this mastodon, I'm just
inquiring for a curious college historian. Any information would be
most helpful. Please reply on or off-list as you see fit.
Thanks,
Anne Scott
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