35 had been washed away, exposing the mastodon skeleton in the sediment when the water retreated from the sandbar in July of the same year.

35, notified his neighbor James K. Hampson about unusual bones he had found exposed by the retreating water at the head of the river island.

By the time of Hampson's arrival, many of the bones had been stolen and the skeleton had been considerably damaged by "curiosity seekers" and "ivory hunters".

The remainder of the skeleton ("mainly parts of the hind leg and pelvis") were excavated by Hampson with the help of a pick to separate the mastodon bones from the gravel and pebbles in which they had been resting "cemented together by a clay".

[1] However, these materials lack direct provenance, and it is generally believed that the artifacts and skeletal remains do not represent Paleoindian/Paleoelephant interaction.