Moorpark Mammoth takes its final trip
By Sylvie Belmond belmond@theacorn.com

The Moorpark mammoth, unearthed at a construction site in the Moorpark Highlands in March 2005, was being stored until this week at the Paleo Environmental Associates warehouse lab in Santa Ana. Scientists there have confirmed it is indeed a rare find.

All the while, Hugh Riley, assistant city manager for Moorpark, had been seeking a safe, permanent home for this treasure, one that is accessible to local residents.

The wait is now over, and the ancient beast took a trip to her new abode at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History on Tuesday.

That voyage was much different from the ones the mammoth took during her lifetime, when she roamed the lush and unaltered Southern California landscape almost 1 million years ago.

"Emma," as Riley fondly calls the treasure, was packed snugly into a truck and traveled along the busy Los Angeles freeways on her way to the Santa Barbara museum, unnoticed by the millions of humans who now live in the area.

Riley shadowed her journey to ensure that everything went smoothly.

MAMMOTH ON THE MOVE- Workers for Mammoth Moving Company take great care in preparing for the transport of these ancient fossils to their new home in Santa Barbara.

"The mammoth is in a quiet, serene area of Santa Barbara where the pace is slower and people can appreciate her. She's where she belongs," he said.

In July the Moorpark City Council voted to donate the fossils to the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, a regional museum that interprets the natural history of the region.

"These folks are just the ideal people. They know and appreciate the significance of the mammoth," Riley said.

The museum is a great fit for the discovery, he said, especially because of the mammoth's appeal to children. The Santa Barbara site already has many exhibits geared toward young people, such as the "Claws" Crustacean Exhibit at the Ty Warner Sea Center and the "Toadally Frogs" exhibit.

The Moorpark fossils were determined to be those of a female Southern Mammoth, 800,000 to 1.1 million years old. The species became extinct in North America roughly 300,000 years ago. The Moorpark creature will be the perfect companion for display with the museum's other, much younger, paleontological pachyderm, the Pygmy Mammoth of Santa Rosa Island, Riley said.

The Moorpark mammoth skeleton, which is 70 percent complete, is one of the two most complete specimens known from California, according to experts from the Southern California Academy of Sciences.

The Santa Barbara museum plans to incorporate the mammoth into an expanded geology and paleontology fossil exhibit hall, according to executive director Karl Hutterer. Visitors will be able to see a skeletal fossil exhibit in the making.

But first museum officials must raise the needed funds.

"My hope is to get going with this within a year," Hutterer said.

The museum is about an hour away from Moorpark, at 2559 Puesta del Sol Road, Santa Barbara. Hours of operation are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week.

For more information on the Moorpark mammoth, visit www.moorparkmammoth.org.