Valley of the Mastodons

San Bernardino County Museum paleontologists excavate a 30,000-plus year-old mastodon, the second largest ever found on the West Coast of the North America, and the remains of several other large extinct animals in a pit at the Eastside Reservoir Project near Hemet, California July 7, 1997. The dig site, which resulted from the largest paleontological mitigation effort in North America, has paid off with a plethora of mastodon remains, including the 1995 discovery of "Max", the largest mastodon found on the West Coast, and a wide variety of extinct pre-Ice Age animals including saber-tooth tigers, long-horn bison, dire wolves, camels, and horses. So many mastodons have been found here that some paleontologist have dubbed the site, "The Valley of the Mastodons".(Photo by David McNew)