Michigan are many bones, including jaws with teeth, of a mastodon found
in Monguegon Township, about 6 miles southwest of Wyandotte and about 2
miles northwest of Sibley. The locality more accurately given is the
northwest quarter of the northeast quarter of section 12, township 4
south, range 10 east. This was on the farm of Mr. James H. Vreeland. A
county ditch was being made to drain what is known as the Big Marsh. As
reported to the writer by Mr. R. A. Smith, Assistant State Geologist of
Michigan, on a very coarse limestone gravel are 30 inches of blue clay
and over this about 30 inches of muck. The bones were mostly in the blue
clay; those lying in the muck were much decayed. Some teeth and an atlas
are in the possession of Mr. Vreeland.
According to Leverett and Taylor’s map, this mastodon was buried within
the borders of glacial Lake Lundy, just outside of that of Lake Rouge, a
contemporary of Lake Algonquin. On page 442 of Leverett and Taylor’s
monograph it is stated that the altitude of the beach of Rouge Lake is
589 feet. On the map just referred to the 600–foot contour-line runs at
a considerable distance west of the locality of the mastodon find. The
latter appears, then, to have been somewhere between the altitude of 589
and 600 feet above sea-level, without considering the depth the skeleton
may have lain below the surface. The altitude of Lake Erie is 573 feet.
It is evident that the lake had attained nearly, if not quite, its
present level when this mastodon lived.
Dr. E. C. Case, who superintended the excavation of this specimen,
informed the writer that the bones were found 4 feet from the surface.
23. See page 88.
24. _Petersburg, Monroe County._—Alexander Winchell (Amer. Jour. Sci.,
vol. XXXVIII, 1864, p. 224) reported mastodon remains from this place.
The town is in township 7 south, range 6 east. According to Leverett and
Taylor’s map, Petersburg is within the beach which marks the old glacial
Lake Warren. Probably, therefore, this mastodon lived after the
retirement of this lake, unless it had lived during the time of Lake
Wayne and been covered over by the deposits of Lake Warren when the
waters of the latter made their advance on the land. The time of the
mastodon was more probably after both lakes had ceased to exist.
23. _Saline, Washtenaw County._—Mr. N. A. Wood, of the University of
Michigan, informed the writer that he had seen some mastodon remains
which had been found here in 1880. No exact statements were given
regarding the place. Saline is very close to the beach of old Lake
Maumee, where this beach is crossed by Saline River and on the Defiance
moraine.
25. See page 83.
26. _Seven miles southeast of Ypsilanti, Washtenaw County._—In 1908
(Folio 155, U. S. Geol. Surv., p. 9), Russell and Leverett stated that
remains of a mastodon had been found a few years previously on the farm
of Albert Darling, about 7 miles southeast of Ypsilanti, where laborers
were digging a ditch across a swampy field. The lower jaw with molar
teeth in place, the left tusk, teeth of the upper jaw, portions of the
cranium, some vertebræ and ribs, and some of the larger bones of the
limbs were found. With considerable restoration these parts were mounted
and placed in the museum of Michigan University. The locality must be
not far away from Huron River and within the beach of old Arkona Lake, a
predecessor of the present Lake Erie.
27. See page 81.
INDIANA.
(Maps 5, 9.)
MASTODONS FOUND IN THE UNGLACIATED REGION.
1. _Posey County._—On page 341 of Blainville’s “Ostéographie des
Mammifères,” volume III, it is stated that Lesueur had shown Blainville
drawings of a fine vertebra and a femur, with its epiphyses, of a
mastodon which had been found along the Wabash River. His language
indicates that this was somewhere below New Harmony. He stated that
these bones were in the library at Vincennes, Indiana. In answer to my
inquiry about these bones, President Horace Ellis, of Vincennes
University, informed me that some bones which appear to be those
mentioned are in his university.
These remains were found in digging a well, at a depth of 60 feet. One
of the curators of the library at Vincennes, Mr. Badollet, states that
with these bones were some skin and hair. We may suppose that there was
some mistake about this.
Unfortunately, as in so many other cases, it is now impossible to
determine just where these remains were found. New Harmony is situated
on the border of the Illinoian drift, and this continues nearly 10 miles
farther south. This drift is covered by loess. A well sunk here would,
at a depth of 60 feet, be in probably Iowan loess. Nearer the river, in
the lowlands, the depth given would probably be in Wisconsin outwash.
2. _Dubois County._—Some details regarding the specimen found here are
given in the author’s paper on the “Pleistocene of Indiana” (36th Ann.
Rep. Geol. Surv. Indiana, p. 702). A part of a mastodon was found long
ago near the mouth of Wolf Creek, at the Rock House Ford of White River.
This appears to be in Harrison Township (1 north, range 4 west). The
valley of White River is here occupied by alluvial terraces older than
the Wisconsin drift (Leverett, Monogr. XXXVII, U. S. Geol. Surv., plate
VI). There is here too, no doubt, much outwash from the Wisconsin
glacier itself.
The writer has received a photograph of a mastodon tooth which Mr.
Marshall Roberts, of Jasper, Indiana, found in 1912 in East White River,
in the northwest part of Harrison Township. The tooth is 195 mm. long
and 87 mm. wide and has four crests and a large talon.
In Samuel L. Mitchill’s “Observations on the Geology of North America,”
page 363, it is stated that a part of a mastodon had been found, in July
1817, “near the falls of the east branch” of White River. No exact
conclusion can be drawn from the facts known.
3. _Hindostan, Martin County._—Mastodon remains (36th Rep. Geol. Surv.
Indiana, p. 707) have been found at Hindostan, on the east bank of White
River, about 4.5 miles directly southwest of Shoals. A mastodon tooth
was found in White River at Shoals (op. cit., p. 709). It appears to be
impossible to determine the age of this material.
4. _Orange County, west of Orleans._—The writer has given an account
(36th Rep. Geol. Surv. Indiana, p. 710) of mastodon remains found here,
on the farm of Mr. Marion F. Mathers, apparently near the line between
the townships of ranges 1 and 2 west and 3 north, and about 2 miles
south of the line between Orange and Lawrence Counties. The remains
appear to have been found in a valley and about 4.5 feet below the
surface. Being found thus in an unglaciated region, they might have been
deposited at any time during the Pleistocene.
5. _Sparksville, Jackson County._—Some years ago teeth and ribs of a
mastodon were found on the bank of White River, at Sparksville. The
valley here is filled with outwash from the Wisconsin drift, but there
is possibly some outwash from the Illinoian.
6. _Jackson County, 7 miles west of Tampico._—(See 36th Ann. Rep. State
Geologist of Indiana, vol. XXXVI, p. 706.) A mastodon tooth was reported
found on the bank of Judah Creek, a branch of Mill Creek, in section 9,
township 4 north, range 4 east, not far from Muscatatuk River. This is
at some distance outside of the border of the Illinoian drift. Along
Mill Creek are alluvial deposits, but nearby is Chestnut ridge of
probably Wisconsin age (32d Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv. Indiana, p. 192).
7. _New Albany, Floyd County._—In the Fifth Annual Report of the
Geological Survey of Indiana, page 176, Mr. William W. Borden stated
that mastodon remains had been frequently found on the bank of the Ohio
River, at New Albany. As too often, there are lacking details as to
localities and levels. It is quite probable that there is some outwash
at this place from the Illinoian drift, and there is much from the
Wisconsin.
MASTODONS FOUND WITHIN AREA COVERED BY ILLINOIAN DRIFT.
8. _Princeton, Gibson County._—In 1910, three teeth of a mastodon were
found in this village, at a depth of 6 feet, in a sewer which was being
constructed in West Chestnut street. This region is covered by Illinoian
drift. According to Leverett’s map (Monogr. LIII, 1914), Princeton is
situated on Illinoian ground moraine covered by loess. Dr. E. W. Shaw,
of the U. S. Geological Survey, who is familiar with the region in
question, informs the writer that these teeth were almost certainly
found in Iowan loess, deposited at some time between the Illinoian and
the Wisconsin glacial stages.
52. _Vincennes, Knox County._—At the State University of Colorado, at
Boulder, there is an atlas of a mastodon which was taken there by
Professor M. M. Ellis, formerly of Vincennes, who stated that this, with
other bones, had been found at Vincennes, associated with a skull of a
fossil bison.
9. _Knox or Gibson County._—In Blainville’s “Ostéographie des
Mammifères,” page 340, it was stated that the lower jaw of a mastodon
had been found at some place between Vincennes and New Harmony. The
locality would be in either Knox or Gibson County. The valley of the
Wabash in all this region is filled with outwash from the Wisconsin
glacier, and most probably the animal represented lived during the
Wisconsin stage; but our lack of knowledge of the conditions in which
the jaw was found forbids any assumption of certainty in our conclusion.
10. _Parke County._—In the Forty-first Annual Report of the State Museum
of New York it is reported that there was received, about 1888, the
tooth of a mastodon, found in this county, at the junction of Raccoon
and Little Raccoon Creeks. These creeks unite on section 23 of township
14 north, range 8 west. The political name of the township is Florida.
The region is covered by Illinoian drift; hence the tooth is quite
certainly more recent than that epoch. The valleys of the creeks named
are occupied by outwash from Wisconsin drift, and probably the teeth
found lodgment there during the Wisconsin stage.
11. _Brookville, Franklin County._—The writer has given an account of
the remains of mastodons found near Brookville (36th Ann. Rep. Geol.
Surv. Indiana, 1912, p. 704). The information is derived from a report
by Dr. Rufus Haymond, made in the First Annual Report, 1869, page 199.
Two of these were found 8 or 9 feet below the surface, in the gravel of
the upper terrace, along Whitewater River. One was discovered about half
a mile below Brookville, the other about 3.5 miles below the village.
According to Mr. A. E. Taylor’s account of this region (34th Ann. Rep.
Geol. Surv. Indiana), the terrace in which the mastodon bones were
buried is 100 feet above the present bed of Whitewater River. As Haymond
speaks of skeletons being found at these localities, it is probable that
something more than isolated teeth or bones were buried there. If so,
the bones were in their original place of interment, and since that
interment the terrace was built up higher by about 8 feet. According to
Leverett (Monogr. LIII, p. 118), these terraces were made from the
outwash of the Wisconsin glacier while it was forming the moraines which
cross Wayne and the southern part of Randolph Counties. If this is true,
these mastodons lived shortly after the culmination of the Wisconsin
stage. This interpretation would imply that mastodons could live in very
close proximity to the glacial front. However, not too much importance
must be attached to this case, for it is possible that the animals were
not correctly identified.
According to Haymond, another skeleton was found about 3.5 miles
northeast of Brookville, in a piece of marshy ground which the owner was
ditching. This discovery must have been made either on the outer
(Hartwell) moraine of the Wisconsin glacier or along East Honnas Creek,
where it breaks through the moraine. In either case, the animal must
have been buried there after the retirement of the ice from that
moraine.
12. _Dearborn County._—In 1872 (3d and 4th Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv.
Indiana, p. 402), Professor R. B. Warder mentioned briefly that some
remains of mastodon had been met with in this county. A part of a large
pelvis was found at a salt spring on Tanner’s Creek, below Guilford.
This may have belonged to either a mastodon or an elephant. A mastodon’s
tooth is said to have been found on high ground on George Randall’s
farm, 5 miles west of southwest of Aurora, lying on a stratum of blue
clay 8 or 9 feet below the surface. This region is occupied by Illinoian
drift and the mastodon probably lived there at some time after the
Illinoian stage and before the Wisconsin. However, we can not be certain
that the animal was not a mammoth, for no description was given of the
tooth and it has almost certainly been destroyed.
According to L. C. Ward’s report on the soils of Dearborn County (32d
Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv. Indiana, p. 232), this immediate region is
occupied by what he calls limestone upland soil, which has resulted from
the decay of Silurian limestones and shales. Nothing is said about
Illinoian drift there. Nevertheless, by some means, this proboscidean
was buried there during the Pleistocene period.
Warder mentioned other remains of proboscideans reported from Ohio
County, adjoining Dearborn on the south, a piece of a tusk found near
Patriot, a tusk on Laughery Creek above Hartford, and a tooth at Rising
Sun, in the river bank; but these may have belonged to elephants. To an
elephant may have belonged the tusks which Warder reported as having
been found in the river bottom 5 miles below Vevay, in Switzerland
County.
54. _Lawrenceburg, Dearborn County._—Mr. M. G. Mock, of Houston, Texas,
formerly of Muncie, Indiana, a careful collector of mastodon and
elephant teeth, in a letter informed the writer that in August 1887 a
large mastodon tooth was found near Lawrenceburg, but the exact locality
was not given.
20. _Charleston, Clark County._—In the Fifth Annual Report of the
Geological Survey of Indiana, 1874, page 176, Mr. William W. Borden
reported the discovery of a skeleton of a mastodon on tract 55 of the
“Illinois Grant,” about 2 miles southwest of Charleston Landing and
about the same distance from the Ohio River. A part of the bones was
sent to the old Louisville Museum; the others were, in 1874, in the
possession of Mr. J. Coons, one of the finders. Probably the bones have
long been lost or destroyed. According to Borden, they were found in a
sand-bank. This region is occupied by Illinoian drift.
According to R. W. Ellis’s soil survey of this region (32d Ann. Rep.
Geol. Surv. Indiana, p. 245, map), this area is occupied by what is
called New Washington clay loam. This is regarded as the residual soil
of the disintegrated limestone of the Jeffersonville and Niagara
formations. Nothing is said about any glacial drift here, but the sand
of the sand-pit mentioned must have been deposited during the
Pleistocene.
MASTODONS FOUND BETWEEN THE SHELBYVILLE AND THE BLOOMINGTON MORAINES.
13. _Greencastle, Putnam County._—The State collection at Indianapolis
contains a last molar of a mastodon found somewhere near Greencastle. It
is not known whether it was found on Wisconsin drift or on Illinoian, or
in Wisconsin outwash along Eel River.
50. _Greensburg, Decatur County._—From Dr. W. D. Matthew, American
Museum Natural History, New York City, the writer has received
information, accompanied by drawings, that teeth and part of the jaw of
a mastodon were found near Greensburg, by Mr. Roscoe Humphrey. The
drawings show two teeth, one having a length of 102 mm., the other of
135 mm. Mr. Humphrey states that the jaw and the teeth were found in a
branch of Sand Creek, about 4.5 miles southeast of Greensburg. This is
evidently on the Shelbyville moraine.
14. _Danville, Hendricks County._—The collection of the State Museum at
Indianapolis contains a lower second true molar labeled as having been
found near Danville. The specimen is credited to Dr. Vinnage. As this
region is covered by Wisconsin drift, it is probable that the animal
lived after the Wisconsin ice had retired.
15. _Attica, Fountain County._—Mr. J. E. Walker, of Attica, Indiana, has
informed the writer that about October 1, 1895, a mastodon jaw was found
near Newtown, in that county. Mr. Charles B. McKinney, of Newtown, wrote
that the jaw was discovered in the bank of Coal Creek, about 4 rods from
where the creek crosses into Montgomery County, in the northeast quarter
of section 9, township 20 north, range 6 west. The bank rose 3 feet
above the bed of the creek and was composed of a black loam; higher
ground is found about 20 rods away. This jaw must have been buried
originally where it was found or nearby and after the ice which formed
the Champaign moraine had withdrawn further north. It may have been long
after this withdrawal. The description of the jaw and teeth leaves no
doubt as to the correct identification of the animal.
Former State Geologist John Collett, in 1880 (2nd Rep. Bur. Stat. Geol.
Indiana, p. 386), stated that in digging a canal a few miles north of
Covington a skeleton of a mastodon had been found embedded in wet peat.
Collett reported that the bones yet contained their marrow. The identity
of the species and the details as to location and depths are not given.
Doubtless the age of the animal was Late Wisconsin.
MASTODONS FOUND NORTH OF THE BLOOMINGTON MORAINIC SYSTEM AND SOUTH OF
THE WABASH RIVER AND THE MISSISSINAWA MORAINE.
The whole region is occupied by deposits from the Wisconsin glacial
sheet.
16. _Bowers, Montgomery County._—Professor Donaldson Bodine of Wabash
College, has informed the writer that about 1885 some remains of a
mastodon were unearthed on the farm of Milton N. Waugh, near Bowers. The
exact locality is said to be in section 12, township 20 north, range 3
west. This must be close to a stream named on the map Potato Creek. This
lies north of the Bloomington morainic system or on its northern edge.
The epoch of the animal is not earlier than Wisconsin.
According to Jones and Orahood’s soil survey of this county (37th Ann.
Rep. Geol. Surv. Indiana, p. 149), the glacial drift is almost
everywhere overlain by loess, varying in thickness from a few inches to
nearly 3 feet. This loess was deposited after the ice had retired from
that region.
17. _Indianapolis, Marion County._—In the State Museum at Indianapolis
there is a lower right last molar labeled as having been found in
Indianapolis, at Pennsylvania and Thirtieth streets, by workmen who were
digging a sewer. This was probably in outwash materials brought down by
Fall Creek from the northeast during the withdrawal of the Wisconsin ice
from the Bloomington moraine to the one which passes through Union City
and Muncie, called the Union City moraine.
18. _Anderson, Madison County._—In the Indianapolis Star of July 30,
1911, is an account of the finding of jawbones, with teeth, of a
mastodon. The account was accompanied by reproductions of photographs,
which make the identification certain. The remains were found on the
farm of Louis Webb, but the exact location was not indicated. The animal
certainly lived after the culmination of the Wisconsin stage.
Leverett (Monogr. U. S. Geol. Surv. LIII, p. 99) states that in parts of
central Indiana the Wisconsin drift may be relatively thin, as little as
from 15 to 20 feet. In western Tipton and southern Clinton Counties a
buried soil about 20 feet below the surface seems to represent the land
surface previous to the Wisconsin invasion. In southern Madison County a
black mucky soil, carrying pieces of wood large enough to be called
logs, underlies the till at from 15 to 40 feet. Such a soil would be the
product of the interval between the Illinoian glacial stage and the
Wisconsin, probably either Sangamon or Peorian. In such deposits there
might be found vertebrate remains, possibly even of horses.
19. _Fairmount Township, Grant County._—In 1883, A. J. Phinney, M. D.,
in describing the geology of Grant County (13th Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv.
Indiana, p. 143), reported that some years previously the tooth of a
mastodon was found in one of the marshes south of the lake in Fairmount
Township, number 23 north, range 8 east. In another part of the report
it is stated that the lake was in section 14. It covered at the time of
writing about 10 acres, but had formerly covered about 30 acres. The
drainage is now north into the Mississinawa River; but, before the
Wisconsin ice had withdrawn to where the Mississinawa moraine now is,
the drainage was toward the south into White River. At some time after
the retirement of the ice from this region it became occupied by
mastodons, elephants, giant beavers, and doubtless many other species of
animals.
For 20 see page 91.
21. _Muncie, Delaware County._—A. J. Phinney, in 1882 (11th Ann. Rep.
Geol. Surv. Indiana, p. 131), reported that a mastodon tooth was found
4.5 miles west of Muncie, on the farm of Edward McKinley. No details as
to depth or kind of soil were given. The tooth is said to have measured
4 by 5.5 inches, with a depth of 7 inches. Unless the roots were present
and large it seems not unlikely that the tooth was that of an elephant.
Phinney did not say that he saw the tooth. He reported other supposed
mastodon remains which had been found in this county, but there is no
assurance that they were correctly identified. Whatever proboscideans
they were, they lived after the Wisconsin ice had retreated from that
region.
Mr. M. G. Mock, of Houston, Texas, formerly of Muncie, Indiana, has been
interested in making collections of fossils and curiosities. He has kept
a note-book of his finds and has illustrated it with sketches. He has a
lower right last mastodon molar which was found near Muncie. It is 8.5
inches long, and has 4 crests and 5 roots.
He reports having seen a mastodon tooth with 3 crests, which was found
June 1887, about 1.75 miles east of Muncie, at the mouth of Hog Creek.
Two teeth, of which Mr. Mock still owns one, were found August 8, 1894,
2.5 miles south of Muncie, in a ditch near Buck Creek, on the farm owned
by Oliver McConnell.
53. _Royerton, Delaware County._—Mr. M. G. Mock, above referred to,
showed the writer a drawing of a mastodon tooth which was found May 24,
1890, near Royerton, 6 miles north of Muncie. With this were two other
teeth; one 7 inches long and weighed nearly 4 pounds. These were
discovered in excavating tile clay at a depth of about 3.5 feet.
22. _Henry County._—In the collection of Princeton University are two
lower true molars, apparently the first of each side. The length of each
is 95 mm. They are labeled as having come from Henry County, Indiana,
but there is nothing to indicate from what part of the county.
23. _Losantville, Randolph County._—Losantville is, according to
Leverett (Monogr. U. S. Geol. Surv. LIII, plate VI), on the Bloomington
moraine of the Wisconsin. As indicated on the map, the drift is covered
with silt formed in local ice-border pools. Hence the mastodon in
question left his bones in a depression on the top of the Wisconsin
drift-sheet, and later they were covered by a deposit of peat.
In Nautilus, volume IV, page 131, Elwood Pleas, of Dunreith, Indiana,
gave a list of six species of mollusks found associated with the
mastodon. All are yet living.
Dr. A. J. Phinney (Twelfth Ann. Rep. Ind. Geol. Surv., p. 181) stated
that mastodon bones had been met in this county, but no details were
furnished.
24. _Dalton, Wayne County._—In the Earlham College collection there is a
lower jaw found in Nettle Creek, near Dalton. It contains the last two
molars. The last one has five crests and a talon. The front of the
symphysis is rough, but there are no alveoles for tusks. Dalton is in
the northwestern corner of the county and on the southern border of the
Shelbyville moraine, where this joins the Bloomington moraine.
25. _Jacksonburg, Wayne County._—Dr. John T. Plummer (Amer. Jour. Sci.,
ser. I, vol. XLIV, 1843, p. 302) stated that he had obtained near
Jacksonburg, 18 miles west of Richmond, a tooth. It had four
cross-ridges and was so well preserved that a dentist attempted to make
artificial human teeth from it. According to Leverett’s map, the tooth
was probably on the surface of Wisconsin drift. It could not, therefore,
have lived until after the Shelbyville moraine had been cleared of ice.