Homeschool Family Visits the Mammoth Skeleton
This photo is of Mr. Bristle and seven year old Michael Nashif. Mark was too overwhelmed by the size of the bones to get that close. Photo courtesy of Jennifer Nashif.
By now everyone (in the country, and the world) knows about the mammoth discovered buried on a Lima Township Farm on October 1st. It has received local, national and international news coverage. A Manchester family with connections through a local homeschooling group to the Bristle family (who discovered the mammoth) were able to view the mammoth remains in person the day after they were unearthed.
Jennifer Nashif reported that while the boys thought it was cool, she was the most excited. She stated, “I’m like, ‘Guys!! It’s a WOOLLY MAMMOTH on the outskirts of town! It’s from 15,000 years ago!! These things walked down our street!!!'”
Nashif is a member of a Facebook group for area homeschoolers. A mom posted a note that her father-in-law, Jim Bristle, is the farmer who found the woolly mammoth. She invited members of the group to stop by his barn for an opportunity to see the bones before he donated them to the University.
Jennifer grabbed two of her sons, Michael and Mark, and jumped in the car to go see this once in a lifetime opportunity. The news stories keep calling the location “Chelsea” but the farm is only 10 miles from Manchester.
“We were incredibly fortunate that Mr. Bristle was in the barn when we arrived and he graciously gave us a tour of the bones, explaining what each part was and telling us about the discovery.” Nashif said.
The boys said, “Whoa!” when he showed them an enormous rib.
“It’s hard to believe that one of those huge creatures once may have stood in my yard!” Nashif added. “I can not thank the Bristle family enough for their generosity of time to everyone who stopped by. I’m especially grateful that they donated the bones to the University so that someday I can take my boys to see the exhibit and say, ‘Remember when we saw this in the farmer’s barn?’.”
The University of Michigan Record reports that the bones have been donated to the University. According to the article, written by Jim Erickson:
“The paleontologists were able to recover about 20 percent of the animal’s bones, including the skull and two tusks, numerous vertebrae and ribs, the pelvis and both shoulder blades. The bones are from an adult male mammoth that likely lived 11,700 to 15,000 years ago, though the remains have not yet been dated, Fisher said.”
“”This isn’t just mine. It belongs to everybody,” Bristle said at his farm southwest of Ann Arbor. “This is our way of giving back. A lot of people will benefit from being able to see this mammoth for many years to come. If I can make people happy by doing that, then I consider that a good day.””
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