The site is the largest known concentration of mammoths dying from a (possibly) reoccurring event, which is believed to have been a flash flood.

Baylor's involvement mainly included the research, preservation, and storage of materials from the site, while the city of Waco contributed to the protection of the land.

The current theory is that approximately 68,000 years ago, at least 19 mammoths from a nursery herd were trapped in a steep-sided channel during a flash flood and drowned and/or were buried by mud.

Approximately 15,000 years after the nursery herd was trapped, these animals also appear to have been victims of rising water, unable to escape due to the slippery slopes of the surrounding channel.

[7] The site was discovered in 1978 by late teens Paul Barron and Eddie Bufkin, who were searching for arrowheads and fossils on a farm near the Bosque River.

[citation needed] Once the bone was identified as Columbian mammoth, the museum staff organized a formal dig at the site lasting from 1978 to 1990.

These remains include a large male (bull), a female, two juveniles and a Western Camel (Camelops hesternus) and are in situ at the site.

The site, now run by the City of Waco, Baylor University, and the National Park Service, sits in a 100-plus acre stretch of wooded parkland along the Bosque River.

[12] It is theorized that due to the proximity to the river, the deaths of the uncovered prehistoric animals were a result of flash flooding, drowning the creatures about 67,000 years ago.

The Waco Mammoth National Monument allows field trips, group tours, and the opportunity to become a "Junior Ranger".

[16] The Significance of the Waco Mammoth Site to Central Texas Pleistocene History, a senior thesis by George F. Naryshkin, 1980.