Naturalist thinks there is more to be found in area of state park

LONE WOLF, Okla. (AP) -- A Granite couple's discovery near a lake could be the initial peek into the watery grave of some of Oklahoma's prehistoric dwellers. A fossilized tooth, tusk and femur

Wednesday, February 23rd 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

LONE WOLF, Okla. (AP) -- A Granite couple's discovery near a lake could be the initial peek into the watery grave of some of Oklahoma's prehistoric dwellers. A fossilized tooth, tusk and femur of a woolly mammoth were found at the Quartz Mountain State Park two years ago.

The fragile bones, all that is left of the ancient creature, were recently encased beneath glass at the Quartz Mountain State Park Nature Center. "Every time there's a dry period and a creek dries up, petrified wood seems to pop up," Quartz Mountain State Park naturalist Sue Hokanson said. "I'm sure there are more buried out there somewhere."

Larry and Nelda Henthorn found the mammoth's bones while walking along the north shore of Lake Lugert in October 1998, when Oklahoma was in the throes of a drought and water levels were extremely low. They called a local archaeologist to investigate the site that normally is beneath water. "Initially we weren't expecting too much," said Joe Anderson, an archaeologist with the Museum of the Great Plains in Lawton. "Then we kept digging and digging. We were all surprised by what we found."

What they found was the entire left side of the animal's skeleton, which revealed that the mammoth was a juvenile that stood between 6 feet and 8 feet tall. "Finds like these aren't as rare as you would think," Anderson said. "Parts and pieces are found all the time through the erosion cycles. But this one was unusual because it was a juvenile, and it was complete. "That threw us for a loop."

While the entire left side of the skeleton was found, little of it could be salvaged. "This was all they could stabilize at the site," Hokanson said as she pointed at the remains beneath the glass. "The bones were too delicate, just like powder." The discovery of the juvenile mammoth is the biggest on record at Quartz Mountain.