Coos County OR Archives News.....TUSKS IN FAIRVIEW 1933
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Donell Scheirman d_frazier40@yahoo.com October 9, 2010, 11:45 pm

Coquille Valley Sentinel 1933
Coquille Valley Sentinel
January 20, 1933

Pure White Ivory
Tusk eight feet, six inches long, found on the North Fork

 The finding of teeth and tusks of the mammoth creatures which roamed the 
earth thousands, and perhaps millions, of years ago is no novelty in the 
United States, but the discovery of a mastodon tusk in Coos county brings the 
matter much nearer home.
  One of these tusks, eight feet and six inches long, and seven inches in 
diameter at the large end, was partially uncovered on the A.R. Tyrrell place, 
a quarter of a mile above Cooper bridge, on the Myrtle Point-Sitkum road by 
the flood waters of three weeks ago.
  Mr. Tyrrell's son discovered the butt end of the tusk protruding from the 
rock on the river bank and thought it was quartz but his father declared it to 
be a bone.
  They at once began to excavate for it and when it was removed from its bed 
where it had rested for eons of time, found it to be pure ivory.
  In removing the tusk it became broken in four parts, but they were able to 
join it together. The tusk tapers to a small point at the outer end and is 
almost a perfect semi-circle.
  W.J. Ferbrache and Howard Smith, who went up to see it yesterday, say the 
tusk was iron-stained and brownish on the outside but inside it is pure white. 
They lifted one piece which weighed about 35 pounds and estimate the weight of 
the entire tusk at 100 pounds.
  The mastadon was a mammal, closely resembling the elephant, but much larger, 
and its remains where discovered, indicate that it lived in the period of the 
Miocene to late Quaternary time. 
  The tusk shows pitted and rough spots indicating that it had been powerfully 
rubbed on hard substance by the animal which wore it.
  Mr. Tyrrell has written to Washington D.C., to learn what he can about its 
worth and where he can dispose of this pre-historic relic.

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