OHIO – When I was a child a remember exploring and “finding” small treasures, but I never found what Jackson Hepner, 12 found during a family reunion.
According to the inn at honey run located in Millersburg Ohio, 12-year-old Hepner was walking along the waters edge during a delay in a family photo shoot and saw something at the waters edge that looked interesting. The object looked different then every other rock because it had ridges. He pulled it from the creek bed and brought it home.
“I found the mammoth tooth about ten yards upstream from the bridge we had our family pictures on. It was partially buried on the left side of the creek. It was completely out of the water on the creek bed.”
The Hepner family contacted several professors including Dale Gnidovec of The Ohio State University’s Orton Geological Museum, Nigel Brush of Ashland University’s Geology Department, and P. Nick Kardulias College of Wooster’ Program of Archeology. The professors and experts did certify that it was for sure a upper 3rd molar of a Wooly Mammoth. The tooth is distinguished by parallel ridges where animals used to grind grass and seeds.
The unearthing of a mammoth tooth in Ohio proves that the hairy creatures roamed the area a long time ago.
