Mammoth Lake

The mammoth was dated by the logs around it. When Texas A&M archaeologists dug the pit in 2004, the bones lay about thirty-five feet down, and logs recovered nearby put the age near 38,000 years. The animal was probably a Columbian mammoth, larger and less hairy than a woolly mammoth, and it shared the deposit with bison, horse, deer and turtle remains. It was named Asiel. Robson Bonnichsen of Texas A&M's Center for the Study of the First Americans oversaw the dig with the Brazosport Archaeological Society. The pit later became a lake for scuba diving.

What the plaque says

Mammoth Lake Mammoth Lake, formerly a cavernous sand pit, has had a vital influence on the development of clute and the surrounding area. In prehistoric times, nomadic Native American tribes lived in this region, hunting abundant game that thrived near the area's rivers. Anglo settlers came here in the early 1800s. A number of significant individuals once owned this land. Jared E. Groce, an Alabama plantation owner, purchased this property from the Mexican government in 1822. He gave the land to his daughter Sarah as a present when she married William H. Wharton, a lawyer who worked to establish the Republic of Texas and served as president of the convention of 1833. A number of other residents and businesses have also owned this property. Following the Civil War, this former cavern was valued for its deposits of sand. By the 1940s and 1950s, the community of clute experienced significant growth when industrial and chemical plants developed nearby. The sand, sandy clay and clay excavated from the pit were used to build foundations and roads, and to fill up low-lying lands. Vernor material and equipment (VME), which purchased the property in 1986, excavated approximately four million cubic yards of material between 1979 and 2006. In 2003, bones were uncovered during excavation of the site. VME invited a team of archeologists to conduct a dig; they found a partial skeleton from a mammoth which was approximately 14 feet high to its shoulders and up to 17 feet long. Also uncovered were pottery shards and a wooden bowl. In 2006, VME began work to convert the sand pit into a lake to be used for scuba diving. (2008)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge — 7.2 mi
  Coastal prairie, salt marsh and bays between Freeport and Christmas Bay, where an auto tour along Big Slough passes wintering geese, ducks and wading birds in the tens of thousands.
• Levi Jordan Plantation State Historic Site — 14 mi
  A sugar and cotton plantation on the San Bernard River whose enslaved builders and their descendants left one of the best-preserved African American archeological sites in Texas.
• Varner-Hogg Plantation State Historic Site — 16 mi
  A Brazos sugar plantation built by enslaved people for the Patton family, later leased convict labor and Hogg family oil, now told through Rachel Patton and Sarah Ford.
• Brazos Bend State Park — 27 mi
  Oak and pecan bottomland, lakes and alligators on the Brazos River 45 miles from downtown Houston, with the museum's George Observatory in the woods.

More markers nearby

• Dr. Branch Tanner Archer — 0.6 mi
• William Harris Wharton — 0.6 mi
• The Brazos Canal — 2.0 mi
• Joseph H. Hawkins — 3.7 mi