The tusk and hip bone were discovered in a gravel pit in New Ulm, owned by M.R. Paving & Excavating in 2020. Shortly after the discovery, the Science Museum of Minnesota was contacted to confirm the fossil as a mammoth tusk. Dr. Alex Hastings, Science Museum Chair of Paleontology, visited New Ulm to see the tusk and confirmed it belonged to a Columbian mammoth.

M.R. Paving agreed to donate the fossil to the BCHS museum in 2020. Hastings recommended sending it to the Science Museum in the Twin Cities to stabilize the fossil before returning it to BCHS. All parties agreed and the fossil was shipped to the science museum.

Mammoth tusks can disintegrate if not properly conserved, and since mammoth tusks are rare finds in Minnesota, the Science Museum staff were eager to preserve them.

For two years, Science Museum lab manager Nicole Dzenowski worked to stabilize the tusk.

Staff photo by Clay Schuldt Dr. Alex Hastings, Chair of Paleontology at the Science Museum of Minnesota, and Science Museum lab manager Nicole Dzenowski present the preserved mammoth tusk and hip bone to the Brown County Historical Society Museum on Saturday.

After the preservation process was complete, Hastings and Dzenowski returned the tusk to New Ulm. The tusk was placed in the BCHS annex Saturday morning. Hastings and Dzenowski were on hand to answer questions about the fossils and the preservation process.

Dzenowski was thankful that the local individuals who first discovered the tusk took precautions to keep it from drying out. Wet towels and shirts were initially applied to the tusk. This kept it in stable condition until the Science Museum could take over preservation.

Dzenowski explains the preservation process. Part of that time included researching the best preservation methods. It is not often a mammoth tusk that has gone through the preservation process.

One of the reasons preservation was necessary is because the tusk has several different layers that dry at different rates. If an inner layer dries too quickly it can cause the fossil to buckle, crack and splinter apart. The goal was to slowly dry the fossil while adding adhesive material to keep it intact.

The first was to place the tusk in a water and adhesive mixture. Later it was placed in a mixture of water and alcohol. More alcohol was added to eventually force out all moisture from the fossil. The alcohol was then allowed to evaporate, leaving the fossil with only the adhesive material inside.

The preservation process was successful. The Science Museum published a short YouTube video spotlighting the mammoth tusk preservation process.

Hastings said the Science Museum also plans to publish an article on the preservation process in scientific journals. This will help others with preserving fossils that may be discovered in the future.

The Science Museum absorbed all the cost of the preservation process. Their only goal was to ensure the fossil remained intact.

Dzenowski said fossils like the mammoth tusk are important to preserve because it gives an idea of what types of animals were walking around Minnesota 10,0000 years ago.

Hastings said the tusk had significant scientific value in terms of education. The tusk belonged to a large Columbian mammoth that lived a long life. The discovery helps further expand the knowledge of what ice age animals were in this region.

Other mammoth remains have been found in southern Minnesota. Few fossils are found north of the Twin Cities because much of the state was covered by glaciers.

Though this mammoth’s tusk and hip bone were found in New Ulm, Hastings said it likely died at a different location.

New Ulm is built on gravel deposits left over by ancient rivers. A gravel bar began to form where rock debris gathered. It is likely the tusk and hip bone were pulled down the river from a different location. Over the centuries, the river shifted locations, leaving the rock deposits along with the fossils.

Hastings said has visited New Ulm many times over the last four years because its location along Minnesota makes it a prime spot for fossils. It is possible other mammoth fossils could be discovered in the area.

This is not the first mammoth fossil found in New Ulm. The BCHS’s collection previously included a tooth found in the 1930s. The tooth was one of the museum’s earliest donations. It was originally found in 1912 during road construction on Franklin Street and later donated to the museum. The tooth was confirmed to be a mammoth molar.

The 1912 molar and now the 2020 tusk will be on display at the BCHS museum.

BCHS curator Ryan Henning said the tusk will be located at the front of the museum. It will be one of the first display items visitors will see when visiting the museum.