Wright, Thomas

on Aug 22, 1892, Buff Lawrence and Thomas Wright died after they fell down a shaft while trying to get a closer look at mammoth remains found Aug 2, 1892, when miners discovered something strange 20 feet underground on property owned by Silas Stuckey, at Carl Junction Missouri. The find turned out to be the skeletons of two, full grown mammoths dating back at least 10,000 years. The discovery produced some of the largest, best preserved mammoth bones ever found, and they were mammoths and not mastodons. Edwin Otis Harvey with the Missouri State Geological Bureau drove in from Jefferson City Missouri to examine the bones. Harvey said the teeth were in good condition. The molars were nearly perfect, the enamel still on them. They were three and one quarter to four inches wide and six inches long with deep indentations. The tusks were reportedly measured at about nine inches in diameter and nine feet in length. The excavation process was a tragedy as Wright and Lawrence lost their lives. Soon after the 1892 discovery the mammoth skeletons were crated up and shipped by rail to Washington University in St. Louis for cleaning. From there, they were sent to Chicago as part of Missouri's geological exhibit in the 1893 World's Fair. AND they haven't been seen since. [This remark came from a Spotlight on Carl Junction article in 2001]

Obituary.