Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Ed's 1962 Hunt/Trip Part 5 Mastodon Tusk

"Barter Island consists of perhaps 25 to 30 Eskimo families living in their simple and crudely constructed homes. Then there is a large radar installation and an air strip where commercial and military transports can land. En route from Bud's home to Barter Island we saw many herds of caribou, and after leaving Barter Island, we circled inland 100 miles miles or more to the Brooks Range of mountains which are very beautiful. We followed this mountain range westward for about 100 miles, and then we cut across northwest to Bud's home, where we arrived about 9 o'clock in the evening. On thing about traveling in Alaska that time of the year, you never have to worry about getting home before dark, for it never gets dark.

The following day, Elaine, Bud and myself, had planned to make a trip to a very beautiful lake about 500 miles south of Bud's home, but the weather turned bad; in fact it was so foggy for two days that we could not leave Bud's home.

After waiting two days for the weather to clear, we planned a little expedition for Linda and Brian. Inasmuch as we knew that they would not be content to sit in the plane hours at a time, looking at scenery, we planned a little hunting trip - hunting for prehistoric bones. This trip was planned to take us down the Colville River for about 50 miles and then branch off on the Itkillik River for another 50 or 60 miles. About 10 o'clock in the forenoon, Bud, Linda, Brian, and myself took off on this bone hunting expedition.

We traveled down the Colville River about 20 miles where we landed on a sand bar where we were going to do some exploring and bone hunting on foot. However, this was short-lived as the mosquitoes were so thick we couldn't stand it; in fact the mosquitoes were so thick that when we got approximately 200 feet from the plane we could hardly see it because of the mosquitoes. So, we took off again and landed down the river about 20 miles. There we also found the mosquitoes were just as bad, so we decided to do our bone hunting from the airplane. We took off, following the Colville River, flying about 50 feet high, watching both river banks, and especially any sand bars in the river. When we reached the branch in the river, we proceeded to follow the Itkillik River, watching the river banks and sand bars very carefully, and whenever we saw something that resembled any kind of pre-historic bone or tusk, we would circle the spot several times, until we could determine whether it was a piece of driftwood or actually a piece of pre-historic bone.... Inasmuch as the river was very winding, Linda and Brian were complaining of getting airsick. So, we decided that it would be necessary to give up the bone hunting, at least for the time being. As we attempted to make a turn, which was directly above a sand bar n the river, we noticed something lying on the sand. it was gracefully curved and had the appearance of a mastodon tusk. Our plane was too heavily loaded to make a landing on the narrow, winding river, as there was no place where we could get a very long run for landing and take-off. We circled over the object...perhaps 15 to 20 feet above the sand bar to where we could examine the object at very close range, and could definitely decide that it was a mastodon tusk.

We were now about 110 miles form Bud's home, and if this was a mastodon tusk, it would be a very rare find, so we immediately proceeded back to Bud's home, arriving there about supper time. We had our supper and unloaded as much of the gear from the plane as we could spare. Then Bud and I took off again about 10 o'clock in the evening to find this object... We very carefully re-traced our previous trip and were successful in finding the spot, and fortunately we found a portion of the river which had a very stiff current and the wind against the river current, which made it helpful to make a landing with the plane, which was equipped with pontoons... We had a little difficulty in anchoring the plane in the swift current of the river. After we had it anchored we proceeded to the object we had seen from the air, and much to our liking we found it to be a pre-historic mastodon tusk, measuring 78 inches long and about 4 inches in diameter, and surprisingly it was in very good condition. It had evidently been washed out of the glacier bank in the spring and floated out and lodged on the sand bar. It is a known fact that this tusk is at least 10,000 years old, as the mastodon has been extinct for 10.000 years. After taking a few pictures, we loaded the tusk into the plane and made a successful take-off with the swift current and against the wind, in spite of a very short run. We arrived back at Bud's home about midnight."

My father was a very good friend of Mr. Helmericks. I remember being at his place on the Colville and Walker lake many times as a youngster. I believe my father was the last legal non-native to legally take a polar bear in 1972 with Bud. His books are very good reading, I've read them several times each. this series you are posting about this hunt is very interesting to read.

Thank you for the note. Typing them took quite a bit of effort. While I enjoyed doing it, it is gratifying to know that it was appreciated. envy you your experiences with Mr. Helmericks.

I never come to this section of the site.
Glad I did today for this.
Great story, happy that I got to read it.

I’m quietly enjoying your stories immensely. Thanks 👍

I’ve found a few mammoth tusks, teeth too. Never found a mastodon tusk though.

A guy and his wife were out walking a local beach last month when they found a mammoth molar. Pretty cool. They’re tusks and teeth occasionally wash out of bluffs around here fairly regularly....like once or twice a year.

Like it

That’s a petty cool story.

As a serious horn hunter that is an amazing story, both the use of the plane and finding such a rare find. I only get excited about "fresh shed grade #1" antlers but finding something ancient would be soo much better!