Exhibitions and Public Programs

Meet the Mammoths

Ann Craig

Director of Exhibitions and Public Programs

Imagine a herd of Columbian mammoths rambling past the museum—family groups with mothers coaxing along their little ones while adult males weighing 10 tons each make giant strides through the courtyard. Do they trumpet like modern elephants? Do the youngsters play in the mud and then scramble to catch up with the adults? What thunderous sounds emanate from their collective footfalls as they make tracks across the land we now call Oregon?

Columbian mammoths once roamed much of western North America, from the Pacific Northwest and south into Mexico. But they and other giant Ice Age mammals all but disappeared by around 13,000 years ago. Most scientists agree that a combination of climate change and hunting by humans contributed to these extinctions. Today, Columbian mammoths remain powerful symbols of the Ice Age, inspiring wonder in people of all ages about our region’s dynamic natural history.

The museum is a place for celebrating this kind of wonder. It’s also a center for scholarship on Oregon’s ancient animals, landscapes, and climate change. For these reasons, we can’t think of a more fitting ambassador to the museum than the mighty Columbian mammoth—and we’re delighted to announce that they’ll soon be coming to life here at the museum. This fall, thanks to generous contributions from many museum supporters, we’ll unveil two
life-sized Columbian mammoth sculptures at the northern edge of the Starlin Native Plant Courtyard!

The sculptures were created by renowned paleo-artist Gary Staab. The sculptor behind our famous sabertooth salmon, Staab has created works ranging from life-sized dinosaurs outside the Denver Museum of Science and Nature to the forensic reconstruction of ancient humans at the University of Chicago. You can meet Staab and join him for a mammoth sculpting workshop in October; check our program guide for details.

An extension of our indoor exhibits, the mammoth sculptures reflect ongoing research by museum scientists. Last year, Condon Fossil Collection Director Greg Retallack published findings from a 2014 field survey that revealed over a hundred Columbian mammoth footprints spread across the volcanic soil at Oregon’s Fossil Lake. This fossil trackway, dated to about 43,000 years ago, tells a touching story about mammoth families: Its patterns suggest that a limping adult female was tended by two concerned juveniles as the herd journeyed across the lake bed. Complex social systems and deep family bonds are observed among modern African elephants; the mammoth trackway suggests their ancient relatives were not so different.

We hope you and your family will join us in celebrating the new sculptures and the ways that they inspire curiosity, inquiry, and awe. We are deeply grateful to the members, donors, scientists, artists, educators, engineers, landscape architects, and contractors who worked together to make this installation possible.