Preston man finds rare mammoth tusk

Surprises could be waiting right in your own backyard. One man in Preston got quite a surprise when he discovered a mammoth tusk on his property.

Kasey Keller was digging in a gravel pit next to the auto shop he owns. It was something he had done many times before. But this time, he was about to dig up more than just gravel.

“It came to the point where I seen something weird or different inside the hill so I just stopped, kinda brushed off some of it,” Kasey Keller said. “It looked like a plastic pipe at first, then I thought maybe a piece of petrified wood but then I started looking at it more in detail and noticed it looked similar to a bone.”

So Kasey decided to call in experts to be sure. His first call was to Utah State University, who sent someone to inspect the 3 1/2 foot long piece of bone.

USU confirmed it was the tusk of a Columbian mammoth. Columbian mammoths stood about 12 to 15 feet tall. USU believes this particular mammoth once roamed the grasslands of Lake Bonneville. Because of the type of sediment it was found in, the university said the tusk washed up in that spot from flooding.

The tusk is anywhere from 12,000 to 150,000 years old. USU and BYU both took a piece of the tusk for carbon dating. No matter how old, Kasey said it’s still a rare find.

“From what I was told, the odds of finding that in this area are rarer than finding a needle in a haystack,” Kasey Keller said. “And according to USU, they said they haven’t found any other mammoth remains in Cache Valley.”

Kasey’s twin boys, Peyton and Krew, also dug around the gravel pit and found some other pieces of the tusk. Kasey said these were pieces that were broken off with his backhoe on accident.

Both Kasey and his boys said they’re excited about the find.

“Dinosaur bones could be anywhere,” Peyton Keller said. “Like, we could be walking on a dinosaur bone so it’s pretty cool that we found that one.”

“It’s kinda cool to think what actually was here on your property or you know, by your house,” Kasey Keller said. “I’m definitely going to be digging with a lot more gracefulness because who knows what I might find.”

Paleontologists from BYU excavated the remains and are going to preserve them. The tusk will be given back to Kasey when that’s done.

Kasey said he wants others to be able to see and enjoy the tusk too, so he’s considering loaning it to museums for display.