​Miner County Resident Found a Mastodon Tusk Near Fedora in 1938

During the month of June in 1938, Miner County resident Charles Lager unearthed an interesting relic of millennia past: a Mastodon tusk. Found in the Fedora area, the tusk was reported by the Mitchell Daily Republic as weighing 18 pounds and measuring roughly 5 feet long, with a diameter of 9 inches. The tusk was found around 8 feet below ground level, and was likely deposited there before 10,000 B.C.E., as Mastodons disappeared from the fossil record following the end of the Paleolithic Period 12,000 years ago. 
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-- Article by George Justice Forster, published in the Miner County Pioneer.