Mastodons in Lake County

The earliest known discovery of mastodon bones in Lake County occurred in January 1876, as reported by the Waukegan Weekly Gazette: "One morning Mr. M.B. Stone, while digging sand in the pit south of the town branch on Lamar [?] Street, struck with a pick what he supposed to be a stone, but on prying it out found it to be a portion of some mammoth." 

Image of Mastodons courtesy of
American Museum of Natural History

The use of the term "mammoth" by the Gazette may have been simply to signify something quite large, but it should be noted that although similar in appearance, mastodons and mammoths are two distinct species. The most important difference was how they ate. Both were herbivores, but mastodons had cone-shaped cusps on their molars to crush leaves, twigs, and branches. Mammoths had ridged molars that allowed them to cut through vegetation and graze.

Mastodons began to disappear from Lake County at the end of the last Ice Age from 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. Some scientists believe the herds of American mastodon were possibly greater than the bison herds that later roamed the Great Plains. The mastodon’s extinction was probably caused by several factors, including over-hunting by humans, climate change and habitat loss at the end of the Ice Age, and possibly disease.

The most exciting discovery of a mastodon occurred in the summer of 1925. While dredging a canal on his property in Ingleside, Herman Kaping (1870-1932) brought up the ribs and bones of a mastodon. The skull was also found and hoisted several times, but each time slipped off the dredge's bucket back into the water. 

Herman Kaping's resort, Ingleside, circa 1912, near the site of 
mastodon bones discovery. Dunn Museum M-86.1.361

The discovery caught the interest of scientists when Kaping sent the 56" rib bone and 10" long vertebra to the Field Museum of Chicago for identification. He later gifted the bones to the Field Museum. Soon the Field Museum's associate curator of paleontology, Professor Elmer S. Riggs (1869-1963), and associate curator of geology, Dr. H.W. Nichols, arrived to search for more bones.

Herman Kaping (left) and Prof. Riggs of the Field Museum of Chicago
at the site of the Mastodon find in Ingleside. Chicago Tribune, July 29, 1925.

Professor Riggs was a specialist in fossil mammals but had been working for the Field Museum in part to secure dinosaurs for exhibition. Riggs is credited with discovering and naming the Brachiosaurus in 1903. 

Riggs and Nichols were unable to recover more bones, but Riggs gave an impromptu talk on the size and habits of the mastodon to a crowd of onlookers.

On March 11, 1962, another attempt was made to recover the mastodon skull at Kaping's. The site had come to be known as "Mastodon Isle" for the 1925 find.

Examining a mastodon bone: Ken Bundy (diver),
William Palmer, Harry Kaping, and Charles Dussman.
News-Sun, March 13, 1962.
 

This time, the hunt was led by Robert Vogel of the Lake County Museum of History (predecessor to the Bess Bower Dunn Museum) and Herman Kaping's son, Harry Kaping (1894-1975). Harry had ridden the dredging machine when the original find was made.

Robert Vogel (center with paper) discusses the plan
for finding more mastodon bones at Mastodon Isle.
Property owner, Harry Kaping (right wearing fedora)
March 11, 1962. Dunn Museum photo. 

Members of the Lake County Scuba Divers cut two four-foot holes in the ice, 200 feet apart. Harry Kaping directed the divers in their search, but they were unable to locate the mastodon's skull.

Mastodon leg bone recovered in 1925 from Kaping's (above)
was donated to Vogel's museum. It is on permanent exhibit
at the Bess Bower Dunn Museum in Libertyville, IL. BBDM 91.0.597.

In July 1992, mastodon bones were discovered in Wadsworth. While digging a lake on their property, Van Zelst, Inc. Landscapers excavated mastodon bones, eastern elk bones, and remnants of an ancient spruce forest. The find was identified by scientists from the Illinois State Museum, where the majority of the find was donated. A spruce log (BBDM 93.13) was donated to the Bess Bower Dunn Museum.

Dr. Russell Graham of the Illinois State Museum
and David Van Zelst, landscape architect and owner of the 
property examine mastodon bones found while
Van Zelst was digging in Wadsworth in 1992.
Courtesy of David Van Zelst. 

Mastodon statue and prairie flowers representing
Lake County's historic flora and fauna. 
Lake County Discovery Museum at Lakewood Forest Preserve, Wauconda. (2014)

- Diana Dretske, Curator ddretske@LCFPD.org

420 Million Year Old Fossil Rock

The Bess Bower Dunn Museum's oldest artifact (by a long shot) is a 420 million year old fossil rock.

The rock was discovered in May 1957 during the excavation of a new home site on Old Elm Road in Lindenhurst, Illinois. The unearthed rock was so large it had to be split to be removed from the ground.

Photographed with the rock split in two are Raymond Caldwell, Robert Vogel and Mrs. Caldwell. Raymond Caldwell points to a fossil in the rock excavated on the site of his family's new home. Photo taken in September 1957. (Dunn Museum photo/Vogel Vol. 2)

The discovery set off a media whirlwind, opening people's eyes to a time when this entire region was part of an ancient sea.

Robert Vogel, who founded the Lake County Museum of History in Wadsworth in 1957, (a forerunner of the Bess Bower Dunn Museum), acquired the rock for the museum’s collection. Vogel ambitiously collected artifacts to represent different eras in Lake County’s past, and the fossil rock was quite a coup, since it attracted national and international attention.

Detail of fossil rock on exhibit at the Lake County Discovery Museum (now the Bess Bower Dunn Museum), showing cephalopod fossils. Photo by D. Dretske.

The fossils embedded in the rock include small rounded shells of lampshell brachiopods, and the long pointed shells of kronoceras and orthoceras, two types of cephalopods (“head footed”). Cephalopods are the ancestors of today’s squid.

Shell and cephalopod fossils on fossil rock. Photo by D. Dretske.

American interest in fossils and dinosaur bones began in the early 1800s. As a young nation, the United States struggled with its national identity. With no ancient history or man-made monuments to brag about, it took exploration of the continent to reveal a wealth of “larger than life” natural wonders: the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, giant Sequoia and Redwood trees, and dinosaur fossils. These discoveries inspired giant-sized legends such as Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. The discovery of the 420-million year old sea creature fossils, put Lake County on the “larger than life” map.

Robert Vogel (1925-2005) collecting the fossil rock for the museum, September 1957. (Dunn Museum Photo)

Thanks to Bob Vogel, the fossil rock became part of the museum's permanent collection and has fascinated museum visitors for many years. It has been on permanent exhibit in the museum's galleries since 1999. 

Remember, September is Illinois Archaeology Awareness Month! https://www.isas.illinois.edu/