North Dakota
Coal miners in North Dakota unearth a mammoth tusk buried for thousands of years
BISMARCK, N.D. – The first person to spot it was a shovel operator working the overnight shift, eyeing a glint of white as he scooped up a giant mound of dirt and dropped it into a dump truck.
Later, after the truck driver dumped the load, a dozer driver was ready to flatten the dirt but stopped for a closer look when he, too, spotted that bit of white.
Only then did the miners realize they had unearthed something special: a 7-foot-long mammoth tusk that had been buried for thousands of years.
“We were very fortunate, lucky to find what we found,” said David Straley, an executive of North American Coal, which owns the mine.
The miners unearthed the tusk from an old streambed, about 40 feet (12.1 meters) deep, at the Freedom Mine near Beulah, North Dakota. The 45,000-acre (18,210-hectare) surface mine produces up to 16 million tons (14.5 million metric tons) of lignite coal per year.
After spotting the tusk, the crews stopped digging in the area and called in experts, who estimated it to be 10,000 to 100,000 years old.
Jeff Person, a paleontologist with the North Dakota Geologic Survey, was among those to respond. He expressed surprise that the mammoth tusk hadn’t suffered more damage, considering the massive equipment used at the site.
“It’s miraculous that it came out pretty much unscathed,” Person said.
A subsequent dig at the discovery site found more bones. Person described it as a “trickle of finds,” totaling more than 20 bones, including a shoulder blade, ribs, a tooth and parts of hips, but it’s likely to be the most complete mammoth found in North Dakota, where it’s much more common to dig up an isolated mammoth bone, tooth or piece of a tusk.
“It’s not a lot of bones compared to how many are in the skeleton, but it’s enough that we know that this is all associated, and it’s a lot more than we’ve ever found of one animal together, so that’s really given us some significance,” Person said.
Mammoths once roamed across parts of Africa, Asia, Europe and North America. Specimens have been found throughout the United States and Canada, said Paul Ullmann, a University of North Dakota vertebrate paleontologist.
The mine’s discovery is fairly rare in North Dakota and the region, as many remains of animals alive during the last Ice Age were destroyed by glaciations and movements of ice sheets, Ullmann said.
Other areas have yielded more mammonth remains, such as bonebeds of skeletons in Texas and South Dakota. People even have found frozen carcasses in the permafrost of Canada and Siberia, he said.
Mammoths went extinct about 10,000 years ago in what is now North Dakota, according to the Geologic Survey. They were larger than elephants today and were covered in thick wool. Cave paintings dating back 13,000 years depict mammoths.
Ullmann calls mammoths “media superstars almost as much as dinosaurs,” citing the ”Ice Age” film franchise.
This ivory tusk, weighing more than 50 pounds (22.6 kilograms), is considered fragile. It has been wrapped in plastic as the paleontologists try to control how fast it dehydrates. Too quickly, and the bone could break apart and be destroyed, Person said.
Other bones also have been wrapped in plastic and placed in drawers. The bones will remain in plastic for at least several months until the scientists can figure how to get the water out safely. The paleontologists will identify the mammoth species later, Person said.
The mining company plans to donate the bones to the state for educational purposes.
“Our goal is to give it to the kids,” Straley said.
North Dakota has a landscape primed for bones and fossils, including dinosaurs. Perhaps the best known fossil from the state is that of Dakota, a mummified duckbilled dinosaur with fossilized skin, Ullmann said.
The state’s rich fossil record is largely due to the landscape’s “low-elevation, lush, ecologically productive environments in the past,” Ullmann said.
North Dakota’s location adjacent to the Rocky Mountains puts it in the path of eroding sediments and rivers, which have buried animal remains for 80 million years or more, he said.
“It’s been a perfect scenario that we have really productive environments with a lot of life, but we also had the perfect scenario, geologically, to bury the remains,” Ullmann said.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
While North Dakota’s workforce shortage is serious, it’s also the kind of problem that UND can and will help solve, as today’s Special Edition of UND Today makes clear
By Tom Dennis
Editor, UND Today
We are so lucky to live in North Dakota.
True, there’s a distinct lack of oceanfront views, and even the state Tourism Department once sponsored a tongue-in-cheek billboard that read, “North Dakota Mountain Removal Project completed.” But while North Dakotans know all about their state’s comparative weaknesses in scenery, they’re also aware — and rightly proud — of its exceptional strengths.
Here’s one:
Problems have solutions here. That very much includes the state’s workforce shortage, the issue that Gov. Kelly Armstrong campaigned on and ranks among the top concerns of the state Legislature.
And with that in mind, this Special Edition of UND Today is dedicated to the proposition expressed in the headline: UND is on the case.
Don’t misunderstand; the workforce shortage is an extremely serious issue. Earlier this year, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce released its Worker Shortage Index, an interactive map that “shows which states are suffering the most.”
In two and only two of the states, the crisis is listed as “Most Severe.” They are North Dakota and South Dakota, and while North Dakota’s index of 0.47 is slightly better than South Dakota’s 0.43, it still means North Dakota has only 47 available workers for every 100 open jobs.
In other words, ours is the second-worst workforce-shortage in America.
But think of it this way: Compared with high crime rates, poorly performing schools, frightful levels of homelessness and similar modern complaints, a workforce shortage is an enviable problem for a state to have. That’s because it’s much less intractable than those other concerns — and smart policymaking can make a difference.
That’s already happening, and UND is proud to be playing a part. For example, and as one of the stories in today’s Special Edition reports, the new STEM Complex and proposed Health Professions Collaborative Facility are designed to not only increase the number of graduates in those essential fields but also boost those graduates’ effectiveness and productivity once the new pros are on the job.
Elsewhere on campus, UND students already are being prepared to meet real-world challenges and bolster North Dakota’s STEM workforce development, as another of today’s stories reports. A third story describes North Dakota 85, the School of Medicine & Health Science’s initiative to raise to 85 percent the number of North Dakota residents enrolled in the school’s physician and physician-assistant programs.
And our story today about UND’s extensive online programs describes how, as the story puts it, “distance learning has long been a strategic tool for strengthening North Dakota’s workforce, extending UND’s reach and generating economic benefits statewide.”
As mentioned, UND is on the case.
In September, we published a Special Edition of UND Today titled, “Ten Years Later: The University’s Road to Record Recovery.” UND is enjoying record enrollment at the moment, the series noted. How did that growth come about?
In particular, what were the decisions — some of them very difficult, involving budget cuts and program closures — during the state’s financial crunch in 2016-17, that helped set UND up for its current enrollment success? How have state support, infrastructure improvements, research spending and other recent trends factored in?
Today, we’re extending that outlook to offer thoughts about the next 10 years. And because the state’s workforce shortage is top-of-mind for the elected leaders of North Dakota, it’s top-of-mind at the University of North Dakota, too.
The stories in today’s Special Edition explain how.
Thank you for reading UND Today, and your interest in and support of UND! Feel free to contact me at tom.dennis@UND.edu with any comments or questions.
Don’t miss the full series …
>> UND is on the case. While North Dakota’s workforce shortage is serious, it’s also the kind of problem that UND can and will help solve.
>> The North Dakota magnet of online education. UND’s online programs keep North Dakotans rooted and thriving in-state, while drawing people and positive attention from far and wide.
>> STEM U: New buildings promise to engineer student success. How UND’s STEM Complex and proposed Health Professions Collaborative Facility will grow key components of the state’s workforce.
>> STEM U: How UND educates the workforce of the future. Workforce preparation takes place in labs, classrooms and the Alaskan Arctic, among other locations across UND and beyond.
>> Growing our own physicians and physician assistants. With ND85, UND hopes to raise the number of North Dakota residents enrolled in M.D., P.A. programs at its School of Medicine & Health Sciences.
>> VIDEO: How UND is leading the way in STEM. The deans of UND’s College of Engineering & Mines and College of Arts & Sciences join President Andy Armacost for a conversation about STEM training.
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North Dakota
North Dakota widow with disabilities fears November SNAP halt amid ongoing government shutdown
BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) – Federal food assistance for low-income persons is set to freeze on Saturday because of the gridlock in Washington.
Terry Hornbuckle is a 65-year-old disabled widow, and she wonders how she will be able to make up for SNAP payments if they are paused in November due to the government shutdown.
“Any penny that comes into this house is absolutely pinched until it screams,” said Hornbuckle.
The government shutdown started almost a month ago. Democrats want a resolution on expiring health care tax credits. But Republicans demand that Democrats end the shutdown before they negotiate anything.
“Well, we’re going to get it done. The Democrats have caused the problem on food stamps,” said President Donald Trump.
Hornbuckle is just living off her late husband’s Social Security. She finds it unfathomable that the shutdown is hurting society’s most vulnerable.
“I’m being used as a weapon. I’m marginalized. I’m collateral damage,” said Hornbuckle.
The state Department of Health and Human Services has funds it could use to resume SNAP, but federal rules prevent this.
On Thursday, Governor Kelly Armstrong will announce a plan that could help North Dakotans bridge a possible gap in food assistance after Nov. 1.
Hornbuckle said this would be a meaningful step in the right direction.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz recently announced that he is sending $4 million in emergency funding to food shelves in advance of the SNAP benefits pausing.
Governor Armstrong’s office has not elaborated on what he is planning to announce on Thursday afternoon. We’ll be at the press conference and let you know the details as soon as we hear them.
Copyright 2025 KFYR. All rights reserved.
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