‘Old stump’ spotted by deer hunter is actually a mammoth tusk, Texas researchers say

Will Juett had doubts when a hunter told him they’d found something on the 02 Ranch even more rare than a trophy buck. An ancient fossil, the hunter said, a piece of a long-dead beast.

At first, even seeing wasn’t believing for Juett, Sul Ross State University, located in Alpine, said in a March 11 news release.

“I was skeptical when a deer hunter showed me a picture of what he thought was a fossil,” Juett, manager of the 02 Ranch, said in the release. “I figured it was likely just an old stump, but imagined how great it would be if he was right.”

Juett didn’t have to wonder for long. Already having a relationship with Sul Ross’ Center for Big Bend Studies, he reached out to the program with what the hunter had shown him.

“It paid off big time,” Juett said.

The hunter had been prowling for deer at the 02 Ranch in late December and spotted an unusual object sticking out of a dried creek bed, university spokesperson Caitlin Carvajal told McClatchy News. By early January, a team of researchers headed to the ranch, located in Presidio and Brewster counties, and took a closer look for themselves.

The hunter‘s instincts were right: It was a fossil, the university said. Researchers confirmed it was a mammoth tusk, “a very rare find in West Texas.”

“The tusk was located in the drainage area of a creek bed,” program director Bryon Schroeder said in the release, adding that the tusk was all alone. “We realized pretty quickly there was no more to the skeleton, just an isolated tusk that had been separated from the rest of the remains.”

Schroeder was joined by archaeologist Erika Blecha; Haley Bjorklund, a graduate student from the University of Kansas; and anthropology professors Justin Garnett and Devin Pettigrew, the release said.

The team carefully covered the tusk in a plaster jacket, a process that took two days, then transported it to Sul Ross for study, the university said.

Researchers plan to carbon date the tusk to get an idea of how old it is, Schroeder said. The last time a mammoth tusk was found in the Trans-Pecos region of Texas was in the 1960s, roughly a decade after carbon dating had been invented. Carbon dating has become a much more exact science now.

“There was a big range of error back then. Now we can get it down to a narrower range within 500 years,” Schroeder said.

The results of the carbon-dating process should be available within a few months, the university said.

Juett may be one of the people most excited to hear what researchers discover.

“Seeing that mammoth tusk just brings the ancient world to life,” Juett said. “Now, I can’t help but imagine that huge animal wandering around the hills on the O₂ Ranch. My next thought is always about the people that faced those huge tusks with only a stone tool in their hand!”

Alpine is a roughly 400-mile drive west from Austin.

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