Blackbear

************************************************** ************
This Message Is Reprinted Under The Fair Use
Doctrine Of International Copyright Law:
_http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html_
(http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html)
************************************************** ************

FROM: THE TIMES HERALD-RECORD NEWSPAPER

_http://www.recordonline.com/archive/2005/10/28/ssdigs28.htm_
(http://www.recordonline.com/archive/...8/ssdigs28.htm)

Mastodons once roamed Montgomery




By Sheldon Scruggs
Times Herald-Record
sscruggs@th-record.com

Montgomery – Would you believe giant, woolly elephants grazed in the Village
of Montgomery and drank water from the Wallkill River?
That was thousands of years ago, but we know it happened because in 1801,
when Thomas Jefferson was president, mastodon bones were dug up in the village
to make the first complete mastodon ever. In fact, that dig was the first to
unearth the bones of any prehistoric creature on this continent.
This fall, the discovery was celebrated with a re-enactment of the original
1801 dig, which occurred directly across from where the Valley Central High
School is now, on the other side of Route 17K. A swamp was there then.
Montgomery artist Shawn Dell Joyce was on hand to photogragh the re-enactors
in period dress and any visitors who wished to participate in the skit. She
plans to use the re-enactment as a model for a 9-by-12-foot painting
depicting the dig. The painting will be attached to the outer wall of Valley Central
High School.
Local historian Joe Devine was a re-enactor, portraying the famed
Revolutionary War portrait painter Charles Wilson Peale, who supervised the excavation.
"It was actually Peale's son who located the site for the mastodon dig,"
Devine said.
Ironically, it was Devine's grandson, Eric Martens, who rediscovered the
site of that 1801 dig after overhearing his grandfather describe the man-made
hole that would look like a small pond. Young Eric took his grandfather right
to it.
As a naturalist and scientist, Peale was asked by the American Philosophical
Society to lead an expedition that could locate more of the mysterious huge
bones similar to ones found in the Montgomery area in 1793.
In the spring of 1801, Peale, assisted by his group of laborers, unearthed
the remains of what they called the American Incognitum or "mammoth" because
of its great size. The skeletal remains were 11 feet tall when reconstructed.
The find created a worldwide sensation.
"No one had ever seen a prehistoric creature and extinction was unheard of
in 1801," Joyce said.
It was at the moment of awe and excitment, when Peale first hoisted a bone
from the pit, that Ms. Joyce will try to capture in her scroll mural.
The mural will be painted in public, on a canvas scroll that will be
attached to the outer wall of Valley Central High School starting in April. The
public will be able to observe her progress and ask her questions.
The re-enactment was sponsored by the Town of Montgomery Cultural Alliance.
By the way, the mastodon skeleton was sold long ago and is now in a museum
in Germany.

__________________
Don't worry that it's not good enough for anyone else to hear... just sing, sing a song.