“Delta Sand Deposit,” which forms the surface of the Cleveland plateau,
had yielded numerous portions of the skeletons of elephant and mastodon.
These could hardly have existed before the retirement of the lake within
the Warren beach.
Klippart (Cin. Quart. Jour. Nat. Sci., vol. II, 1875, p. 153) says that
a nearly complete skeleton of a mastodon was dug up in the immediate
vicinity of Cleveland, but had been broken into pieces at once by the
workmen. The identity of this specimen is doubtful and the exact
locality is unknown.
43. _Medina County._—In 1875 (op. cit., p. 153), Klippart reported that
nearly 50 years before he wrote tusks, said to have been 12 feet long,
and some parts of the skeleton of a mastodon had been taken out of a
marl pit in this county. As in other cases, there is uncertainty about
the locality and the identity of the animal.
44. _Green Township, Summit County._—Professor William C. Mills, of the
State University of Ohio, has informed the writer that he had secured
remains of a young mastodon in section 13 of this township (Tp. 2 N., R.
9 W.). The bones were found at a depth of about 30 inches and were badly
decayed. The region is flat and lies in a bend of the headwaters of
Tuscarawas River.
45. _Massillon, Stark County._—S. P. Hildreth, in 1837 (Amer. Jour.
Sci., ser. 1, vol. XXXI, p. 56), reported that a year or two before he
wrote some very large bones and tusks of a mastodon had been brought to
light in excavating a mill-race near Massillon through a swamp or wet
prairie. This city is situated on the Tuscarawas River.
46. _Canton, Stark County._—In the Cincinnati Inquirer of November 11,
1910, a paragraph announced that some boys, while digging in the east
end of the city, had found 2 mastodon teeth. On November 26 the writer
received a letter from Mr. N. D. Bush, of Canton, who described the
teeth, so that it is certain that they were those of the mastodon. Both
Massillon and Canton are situated on the broad Grand River moraine.
47. See page 70.
48. _Trumbull County._—Mr. John T. Plummer, in 1843 (Amer. Jour. Sci.,
ser. 1, vol. XLIV, p. 302, footnote), stated that he owned a grinder
with 10 prominences which had been found in this county. Evidently the
tooth was that of a mastodon, but the locality is somewhat vague.
For 49 and 50 see page 74; for 51 see page 75.
MICHIGAN.
(Maps 5, 8.)
1. _Church, Hillsdale County._—In 1901 there was found, on the farm of
Mr. Levi Wood, near Church, the greater part of the skeleton of a small
mastodon. This was exhumed by an agent of the U. S. National Museum and
is exhibited there. The animal is small and probably a female. The bones
were found in a peat-swamp, not far from the surface. Those most deeply
buried were only 4 feet from the surface, while others were down only
about 2.5 feet.
The whole of the township in which Church is situated is occupied by a
part of the Mississinawa moraine, the outermost one formed by the Erie
lobe of the Wisconsin ice. So far as the ground is concerned, the
mastodon might have lived there long before the close of the Wisconsin
stage at any time after the exposure of the moraine.
This mastodon was described and figured by Mr. C. W. Gilmore in 1906
(Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. XXX, p. 610, plate XXXV).
2. _Adrian, Lenawee County._—In the American Journal of Science (vol.
XXXVIII, 1864, p. 223), Dr. Alexander Winchell reported the discovery of
remains of a mastodon on section 7 of the township of Adrian, Lenawee
County. The locality is said to have been about 7 miles northwest of the
town of Adrian. The township must therefore be that designated as 6
south, 4 east. Winchell gave a list of the bones, and this comprises
probably about half of the skeleton, including the skull. According to
Winchell, these remains were found at a depth of only about 2 feet in a
peat-bog; beneath this peat, which was 2.5 feet thick, was marly clay,
passing at the depth of 4 feet into loose sand.
According to the glacial map of Leverett and Taylor, the locality would
lie well outside the limits of Lake Maumee and would be on the Fort
Wayne moraine. Probably a long while after the Wisconsin glacial sheet
had retired from Michigan, this mastodon died there and became covered
by the thin deposit of peat, as found. Here may be noted likewise some
remains of a mastodon which Winchell, in the same paper, says had been
found in Adrian.
In the U. S. National Museum (No. 188) there is a lower jaw of a
mastodon, reported to have been found in a lacustrine marsh in this
county, in the “same locality as the Decker mastodon in Adrian College.”
A note states that with this were found bones of deer, elk, and
castoroides. (See further, under the account of the skull of
_Castoroides_ found at Adrian.)
In the annual report of the Michigan Geological Survey for 1901, page
253, A. C. Lane mentioned that at Clinton, Lenawee County, Mr. P. B.
Gragg had found several teeth and bones of mastodon. These seem to have
been buried in the same glacial drain-way as those found in Adrian
township.
27. _Clayton, Lenawee County._—Mr. George Townsend, of Clayton,
Michigan, has informed the writer that he has the lower jaw of a
mastodon which he found while digging a posthole on his farm near that
town. The locality is described as the middle of the line between the
southeast and northeast quarters of southeast quarter of section 7, T.
7. S., R. 2 E., and near a creek. The township is Dover. According to
Leverett and Taylor the immediate region is covered by glacial ground
moraine.
3. _Howell, Livingston County._—Dr. A. C. Lane (op. cit., p. 252)
reported that a lower tooth and a part of a pelvis had been obtained in
dredging the Shiawassee River, in 1900. Mr. C. W. Gilmore, of the U. S.
National Museum, tells the writer that he saw a mastodon tooth which had
been found in a swamp 2 miles southwest of Howell. Alexander Winchell,
in 1864 (Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. XXXVIII, p. 224), reported mastodon
remains from Green Oak, in Livingston County. No details were furnished.
Most of this county is occupied by the Charlotte moraine system, formed
by the ice-lobe which extended out from Saginaw Bay.
4. _Bellevue, Eaton County._—The writer has learned from Mr. N. A. Wood,
of the University of Michigan, that mastodon remains had been described
from near Bellevue by Mr. E. A. Foote, in the third volume of the Report
of the Pioneer Society of Michigan, on pages 402–403. The animal was
found on the farm of Mr. Charles Cummings. It was a large one, the femur
having a length of 3 feet 10 inches and one tusk was over 12 feet in
length. Four teeth belonged to the upper jaw. The remains must have been
found before 1879.
Bellevue is situated on the Kalamazoo River, which here traverses the
Kalamazoo moraine. As in other cases in the central regions of the
State, mastodons may have lived at a rather early stage after the
Wisconsin ice began to withdraw; but they may have kept farther from the
glacial front.
5. _Olivet, Eaton County._—Dr. A. C. Lane (Ann. Rept. Board of Geol.
Surv. Michigan for 1901, p. 253) reported the finding of mastodon bones
near Olivet. A letter from Professor Samuel Rittenhouse, of Olivet
College, gives the information that many of the bones of the skeleton
had been secured. These were exhumed from a marsh on the northwest
quarter of section 11, township 1 north, range 5 west. Following
Leverett and Taylor’s map, the locality seems to be on an esker through
which flows Battle Creek. The country in this region is covered by the
Kalamazoo morainic system of the Saginaw lobe. The mastodon must have
been buried after the ice receded from that moraine.
6. _Stanton, Montcalm County._—Mr. N. A. Wood, preparator in the
University of Michigan, informed the writer that Mr. L. C. Hodges, of
Stanton, in 1911 found some mastodon teeth. Nothing more is known about
these remains. Stanton is situated between the West Branch morainic
system and the Charlotte system.
7. _Buchanan, Berrien County._—Mr. William Hillis Smith, of Niles,
Michigan, informed the writer that many remains of mastodons were found
in a large ditch made to drain the Bakerstown marsh. This ditch began
south and west of Buchanan and emptied into Lake Michigan. It was 16
feet wide and 8 to 10 feet deep. In the course of the work bones and
teeth were frequently thrown out by the steam shovel, especially bones
of mastodons. One skull was badly crushed, but was repaired by Mr. E. H.
Crane, of Kalamazoo, and sold to the Ward Establishment, of Rochester,
New York. Exact statements as to localities are wanting, but the ditch
was evidently located on and within the Valparaiso moraine. It is this
moraine which runs around the southern end of Lake Michigan and
separates the St. Lawrence drainage from that of the Mississippi; east
of the lake it extends far north into Michigan. Naturally, this moraine
was formed before the withdrawal of the Lake Michigan lobe of the
Wisconsin glacier into that lake, and the mastodons might have lived,
died, and been buried there at any time after the exposure of the
moraine and the development of climatal conditions that permitted their
existence.
Mr. Hillis Smith stated that a tooth of an elephant had been thrown out
in making the ditch above mentioned. This tooth was in the possession of
Mr. E. H. Crane, of Kalamazoo. The species is not known.
The mastodons referred to above were mentioned by Lane in his report of
1901, page 253. He also called attention to a list of the mollusks found
in the muck beneath one of the mastodons, prepared by Bryant Walker
(Nautilus, vol. XI, 1898, p. 121), in which 36 species were named.
8. _Eau Claire, Berrien County._—In the Joint Documents of the House of
Representatives of Michigan, session 1841, page 559, Bela Hubbard stated
that remains of a mastodon had been found on Paw Paw Creek, Berrien
County. Lane (Rep. Geol. Surv. Michigan for 1901, p. 252) stated that
there are in the Agricultural College at East Lansing, 6 teeth and half
of a lower jaw, found near Eau Claire, and which may be the remains
referred to by Hubbard. This appears, however, to be an error. On these
teeth are the label: “Found at Eau Claire, Berrien Co., Mich. Found
beneath several feet of muck while digging a ditch. B. L. Comstock, Aug.
17, 1896.” The teeth are extraordinarily large; M^3 right is 222 mm.
long.
The exact places where the remains mentioned were found have not been
recorded. For an account of the small glacial lakes which occupied the
depressions that existed between the Valparaiso moraine and the shore of
Lake Michigan while the latter was yet filled with ice, see Leverett and
Taylor’s Monograph No. LIII, pages 225–227. In the deposits of these
lakes, but probably long after the glacial ice had retired, were buried
the bones of the mastodon and other animals.
From Mr. N. A. Wood, of the University of Michigan, the information has
been received that a part of a skull of a mastodon was found in making a
public ditch about 2 or 3 miles south of Barada.
25. _Galien, Berrien County._—In 1885 (Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., vol.
V, p. 133), I. A. Lapham reported the discovery of the right ramus of
the lower jaw of a mastodon at Terre Coupée. This place has disappeared
from the maps; but it is said to have been situated on the railroad, 11
miles west of Niles, not far east of Galien. The jaw was found by Mr. A.
H. Taylor, at a depth of 6 feet. It was peculiar in having a
supernumerary molar, a seventh. The jaw was again described by Dr. J. C.
Warren in 1855 (Amer. Jour. Sci. (2), vol. XIX, pp. 348–353).
9. _Dorr, Allegan County._—A. C. Lane (Rep. Geol. Surv. Michigan for
1901, p. 253) stated that Frank Fleser and others had secured a jawbone
of mastodon and several teeth. The place is stated to be 4 miles west of
Dorr, probably in the valley of Rabbit River, where it cuts through the
Valparaiso moraine.
10. _Cannonsburg, Kent County._—In the Kent Scientific Museum at Grand
Rapids is a lower left last molar, labeled as having been found at
Cannonsburg, by Henry Detmer. The exact locality of the place where the
tooth was found is unknown to the writer. The tooth is only slightly
worn and is of a white color. Cannonsburg is on a great expansion of
what Leverett and Taylor call the Charlotte morainic system, a system
produced by the Saginaw lobe of the Wisconsin glacier. Being one of the
more distant moraines of the Saginaw lobe, it was one of the earliest to
be freed from ice and to offer itself to animal occupancy; but it may
not have been invaded by mastodons until the glacial wall had moved much
farther away.
11. _Moorland, Muskegon County._—In the Kent Scientific Museum at Grand
Rapids, Michigan, is a mounted mastodon, the bones of which, except the
limbs, belong to a specimen found about 1905 in a swamp north of
Moorland. The exact locality, as given by Mr. C. L. McKay, the finder,
is the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter, section 16, township
10 north, range 14 west. The skull and the tusks are in good condition.
Beneath the skeleton was found the skull which was made the type of
_Boötherium sargenti_ Gidley.
The Moorland swamp forms part of a great plain about 25 miles wide lying
between the “Lake border morainic system” (Leverett and Taylor, p. 222)
and the present eastern shore of Lake Michigan. This plain appears to
have been occupied by either ice or the waters of old glacial lakes
until well near the close of the Wisconsin stage. The animal must have
been one of the latest of his tribe to inhabit the State of Michigan. It
may have lived long after the time of the musk-ox on whose skull the
mastodon’s pelvis was lying.
12. _Williams Township, Bay County._—In the annual reports of the
Geological Survey of Michigan (1901, p. 253; 1905, p. 354), the
discovery of the skeleton of a mastodon in Bay County was announced. It
had been found in a depression called a pot-hole. The locality more
accurately given is in the southwest corner of section 3, township 14
north, range 3 east. There was a fragment of a tusk 8.75 feet long and
but little curved, a femur and its socket 9.5 inches across, one
vertebra, and one tooth. These were found 3 or 4 feet from the surface.
The remains were sent to Ypsilanti. An examination of Leverett and
Taylor’s plate XVII (Monograph LIII) indicates that the mastodon could
not probably have lived there until after the time of Lake Warren. At
that time the ice-sheet occupied most of Lake Huron and a part of
Saginaw Bay, but the climate of that region was probably, for a long
time after the passing of Lake Warren, too raw and cold to please the
mastodon, so that it was long afterward that this individual left his
skeleton in the boggy hole.
13. _Near Saginaw, Saginaw County._—Dr. A. C. Lane has reported (Ann.
Rep. Geol. Surv. Michigan for 1901, p. 252) that he had found in the
possession of farmers in Tittabawassee Township, Saginaw County, parts
of a tusk, said to have come from a ditch near the course of the Parker
drain, about 0.25 mile north of the south line of section 20, township
13 north, range 3 east, according to Mr. D. E. Williamson, of Saginaw.
Dr. Lane also reported remains of a mastodon, including the lower jaw,
found in digging a tile ditch on the “Willis farm.”
14. See page 85.
15. _Saginaw County._—In October 1910, Mr. Ralph McQuiston sent to the
writer photographs of three mastodon teeth found on a farm about 8 miles
east of north of Elsie, Clinton County. He has since given this locality
as being in the southeast quarter of the southwest quarter of section 4,
township 9 north, range 1 east. According to Leverett and Taylor’s
glacial map of Michigan, this would be about 6 miles within the old Lake
Warren beach-line and in sandy deposits laid down in water. The teeth
were found at a depth of 3 feet. It may be that the animal died at that
spot after the waters of Lake Warren had retired. If so, it would be
interesting to determine the origin of the materials which covered the
mastodon. On the other hand, the mastodon remains were possibly
deposited there after the withdrawal of Lake Wayne and that the
overlying materials were laid down by the water of Lake Warren, for this
lake appears to have stood at a higher level than its predecessor. If
the latter supposition is correct, mastodons could live not far away
from the glacial front.
Further correspondence with Mr. McQuiston makes it appear improbable
that the overlying materials were deposited by lake waters. Professor
Leverett suggests that the animal had died in an old swale and had
afterwards been buried under fine material washed in from the somewhat
higher ground in the neighborhood. In that case the mastodon may have
lived at any time after the lake waters had retired from the locality.
14. _Alma, Gratiot County._—In Alma College, at Alma, Gratiot County,
are some remains of a mastodon, found about 6.5 miles southeast of Alma,
on the farm of Mr. Albert Smith. These remains were exhumed under the
direction of Professor H. M. MacCurdy, of Alma College (Mich. Acad.
Sci., Rep. XXI, p. 119). Various parts of the skull are preserved, one
part showing beautifully the air-cells; also a fragment of a tooth,
axis, three dorsal vertebræ, a few ribs, and a part of the pelvis. From
Mr. Albert Smith it is learned that the remains were found on the
southwest quarter of section 17, township 11 north, range 2 west. This,
following Leverett and Taylor’s map, would be on the Owosso moraine,
which here runs north from Ithaca, Gratiot County. A ditch was being dug
through a peat-bog and the bones were met with at a depth of 4 feet or
less from the surface. Professor MacCurdy wrote that the bones were
lying on a bed of gravelly sand and were covered by a thin layer of
mixed sand and vegetation, while over this was about 3 or 4 feet of
well-decayed peat. The locality is about 2 miles from the shore-line of
the glacial Lake Maumee, as mapped by Leverett and Taylor.
In the collection at Alma College is a left ramus of the jaw of a
mastodon, which contains the second and the third true molars and the
socket for the first molar. This jaw is reported to have been found on
the William Pitt farm, about 7 miles from Alma and in Seville Township.
The exact locality is given the writer by Professor MacCurdy as being in
the south half of the northeast quarter of section 22, township 12
north, range 4 west. Professor C. A. Davis contributed for the writer
the information that these bones were discovered in constructing ditches
from 18 inches to probably 3 feet in depth.
In the Alma College collections are some mastodon remains, including
three fine upper teeth, which were found in the southeast part of the
village of Alma. The locality is described as being in the northeast
quarter of the northeast quarter of section 3, township 11 north, range
3 west. Professor Charles A. Davis, deceased, formerly professor at Alma
College, later connected with the Bureau of Mines at Washington, D. C.,
as peat expert, informed the writer that many years ago he exhumed parts
of two skeletons of mastodons. Part of the bones lay in a small deposit
of marl and were well preserved; the others lay on the edge of the
marl-bed and above it and were not so well preserved. It appears that
the locality had been covered permanently with water in which peat was
growing. Associated with the bones in the marl were the fruits of the
tamarack (_Larix laricina_) and of the black spruce (_Picea mariana_).
These trees are growing there to-day, and extend far north into British
America; hence, when those mastodons were living in the region about
Alma the climate may have been as warm as it is to-day or much cooler.
Professor C. A. Davis informed the writer that a large number of
mastodon bones were found about 1885 by a farmer who lived half a mile
west of Riverdale. This was in Seville Township, No. 12 north, range 4
west, apparently in section 31. The discovery was made by the owner of
the land, who found a number of teeth of a mastodon attached to the
roots of a small elm tree which he pulled out of a swale on his farm.
The bones were not more than 18 inches below the surface. Professor
Davis regarded it as remarkable that remains of the mastodon should be
so near the surface in ponds and swales where peat is growing.
16. _Bancroft, Shiawassee County._—Dr. A. C. Lane (7th Ann. Rep. Geol.
Surv. Michigan, 1905, p. 553) reported that some ribs, tusks, teeth, and
many bones of a mastodon had been found near Bancroft, at a depth of 4
feet, in marl, above which were muck, marl, and sand. Lane gives the
locality as being on the line between sections 36 and 25, township 6
north, range 5 east, but this would be about 12 miles east of Bancroft.
The range is probably 3 east. The locality appears to be on the Fowler
moraine.
17. _Venice, Shiawassee County._—In the agricultural school at East
Lansing is a lower right hindermost molar, catalog No. 3392, which is
said to have been found at Venice by Mr. Hiram Johnson. There are also
parts of one or two tusks from the same place, probably of mastodon.
Venice is just north of the Owosso moraine, and the mastodon must have
lived there at a rather late time in the Wisconsin stage. A letter from
Mr. Fayette Johnson, of Washington, D. C., son of Mr. Hiram Johnson,
informs the writer that he saw the bones taken up about the year 1884.
The place was about the center of section 21, township 7 north, range 4
east. This would be apparently on the Owosso moraine.
18. _Fenton, Genesee County._—Alexander Winchell (Amer. Jour. Sci., vol.
XXXVIII, 1864, p. 224) reported mastodon remains from this place. No
details were given. Fenton is located on the Portland moraine, one of
those built up by the Saginaw lobe.
19. _Davison, Genesee County._—In the museum of the Michigan
Agricultural School, at East Lansing, Michigan, is a large left femur,
found near Davison, Genesee County. It was presented by Mr. A. B.
Cullen, but no more exact information was furnished. A comparison of
this femur with those of the mastodon and of a specimen of _E.
primigenius_ from Siberia indicates that the bone belonged to the
American mastodon. The length is 40.5 inches. Davison is situated on the
border of an old lake which lay along the front of the ice which built
up St. Johns moraine (Taylor, Monogr. LIII, p. 241). At this stage the
earliest of the glacial lakes, Lake Maumee, had not yet come into
existence; but it must have been long after this time that the mastodon
lived in the region about Davison.
20. _Utica, Macomb County._—In 1864, Alexander Winchell (Amer. Jour.
Sci., vol. XXXVIII, p. 224) reported mastodon remains from near this
town. A mention of this discovery is given in volume XVII, page 425, of
the “Collections and Researches made by the Michigan Pioneer and
Historical Society,” by George H. Cannon. It is here stated that remains
had been unearthed on the farm of Hon. P. K. Leech, and that specimens
of the jawbone and several teeth were in the cabinet of Hon. W. W.
Andrus. A letter to the present writer from Mr. A. F. Leech, son of Mr.
P. K. Leech, states that the remains had been found on the east half of
the northeast quarter of section 31, township 3 north, range 12 east, in
a swale which runs across the land described. These teeth and bones were
destroyed in a fire many years ago. According to Leverett and Taylor’s
Glacial Map of the Southern Peninsula of Michigan, the locality where
these remains were discovered is near the outer border of the glacial
Lake Maumee, at a point where there was a delta. This delta is mentioned
by Leverett and Taylor (Monogr. LIII, U. S. Geol. Surv., p. 383). It is
where Clinton River entered old Lake Maumee. It is evident that the
animal did not live before the time of this lake; it probably existed
long after this time, when the climate had much moderated.
21. _Plymouth, Wayne County._—Alexander Winchell (First Bienn. Rep.
State Geologist, 1861, p. 132) stated that a Mr. Shattuck had exhumed
nearly an entire set of teeth of a mastodon, with a part of a tusk 7
feet in length. Winchell saw five of the teeth; the other bones appear
to have been destroyed. The exact location of this place is not known,
but Plymouth is within the border of the glacial Lake Maumee; and the
existence of the mastodon was possible only well toward the close of the
Wisconsin stage.