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Arnold Missouri is a great place to be if you are striving for a future in archaeology. That’s because this town is home to the Mastodon State Historic Site. You may hear this mentioned when you meet with your Arnold tutor, as some very big and very important findings happened here.

The first bones of the Mastodon State Historic Site were discovered in the early 1800’s by an archeologist who received reports of bones on the shores of Rock Creek. These bones were excavated, and the archeologist believed he had discovered a new species of animal. He named the creature the Missouri Leviathan and the bones toured all over Europe and the United States. It wasn’t too long before a fellow archeologist convinced him that these were actually the bones of a prehistoric creature from the ice ages that resembled a large hairy elephant; the Mastodon.

In the 20th century an amateur archeologist began his own excavation of the site, where he discovered skulls, teeth, tusks, and other artifacts. He started a small wood shack museum that attracted many. Unfortunately, his excavations were not well documented, and therefore not accepted as valid proof that humans existed at the same time as the Mastodons. Perhaps there would have been a different outcome if he had had a good Arnold tutor. To add more sorrow, many of the artifacts were lost or destroyed.

Word spread of the site and many non-scientific digs took place, with people taking the artifacts they found to sell, without documenting any historic significance. A quarry operation was also started that destroyed many fossils and artifacts from the ice age that could have been discovered and preserved.

In 1970 construction of a new interstate threatened the future of the site once more. The community came together and through the aid of a federal grant were able to buy the 417 acres and preserve the site as a Missouri State Park. Another excavation was sponsored in the late 1970’s where irrefutable proof was found of humans’ existence among the Mastodons. A human weapon was found in the fossils of a Mastodon skeleton, providing the first proof found in North America that humans and Mastodons walked the earth together for a brief period of time.

Today there is currently no digs happening, but a museum stands documenting the history of the skeletal remains, and once you’re done there you can walk a trail to the actual dig site, and discover the place where it all started.