Sheldon, Iowa — If you’ve been wanting to view the woolly mammoth tooth that was recently unearthed in Sheldon, you’re going to have to be patient.
The tooth, which was unearthed on property in western Sheldon owned by Northwest Iowa Community College, will be on display at the Sheldon Prairie Museum, but according to the museum’s Millie Vos, the tooth won’t go on display until after the preservation process has been completed, so it doesn’t deteriorate. Vos says the process will take about five months, so the tooth won’t go on display at the museum until the Sheldon Sesquicentennial celebration, which coincides with Sheldon Celebration Days, this Labor Day Weekend.
In the interim, Vos tells KIWA that the museum does have another woolly mammoth tooth, similar to the one recently discovered, on display. That tooth was found six miles east of Hartley, by an excavation crew. The 8-pound tooth was brought to the Sheldon Prairie Museum for display in 1954.
In addition, she says the museum has a woolly mammoth rib that was first put on display after Sheldon’s Centennial celebration in 1972. Vos says the rib was found about 15 feet below the surface of the ground when Sheldon was erecting a new water tower at the City Park many years ago. Vos says the man who found it, George Hudson, kept his find a secret for many years, afraid that people would begin digging for other woolly mammoth fossils in the park. Hudson’s secret was revealed only after his death, when his brother donated the rib to the museum.
Vos says you can see the woolly mammoth fossils in a display in the museum, but the most recent tooth will not be on display until this fall, when it will join the other woolly mammoth fossils in the same museum display case.
Incidentally, the Sheldon Prairie Museum summer hours begin this Tuesday (April 5th), when they’ll be open on Tuesday afternoons from 2:00 to 4:00, Thursday afternoons from 1:00 to 4:00 and Saturday afternoons from 1:00 to 3:00. If those hours are not convenient, Vos says you can call 712-324-3235 to make an appointment. The museum is closed on holidays.
