Waco’s tableau of prehistoric life 68,000 years in the making could be housed, protected and open to the public as early as fall 2009, officials say.

With money raised and plans submitted for building permits, the city will begin advertising for bids on construction this week, and officials say they hope to break ground on Phase One of the Waco Mammoth Site in September.

“We are extremely pleased that it’s going to become a reality,” said Ellie Caston, director of Baylor University’s Mayborn Museum Complex, which partners with the city of Waco to manage the site. “It’s the ultimate protection of the site, which is what we’ve been concerned about all these many, many years.”

The site is reputed to be the largest collection of Columbian mammoths to have died in a single incident; at least 19 of the 24 discovered are believed to have died in the same flash flood or mudslide. Remains from an ancient camel and prehistoric cat also have been unearthed at the site, which was discovered in 1978 by Paul Barron and Eddie Bufkin.

It continues to be considered for designation as a National Parks unit, which would mean a highway sign for the site, inclusion in National Parks literature and marketing, and access to National Parks resources, said Gloria Young, chairwoman of the Waco Mammoth Foundation Advisory Board.

The National Parks Service determined the site along the Bosque River worthy of inclusion in the parks system last year, but paperwork, several levels of approval and a vote by Congress still stand between the site and an official designation, Young said.

The National Parks Service is expected to release a draft of its report regarding the Waco Mammoth Site and conduct a public hearing sometime this summer, city officials said. The roles of the National Parks Service, city of Waco and Baylor in future management of the site have yet to be determined, but they’re expected to be discussed at the hearing.

The final decision on the site’s status could come by the end of the year, Young said, noting the process is prone to delays.

“That means we’re constructing whether we are a national park unit or not,” she said, though construction will proceed along National Parks guidelines.

Waco parks planner Sharon Fuller said the National Parks’ main concern is to preserve the prehistoric bones, making a central housing site both necessary and difficult.

“The building itself is essentially an over 8,000-square-foot building with no floor, because you have to keep the bones in the ground. It’s structurally complicated, everything is supported on a perimeter wall,” she said. “It’s going to be a little bit tricky, you can imagine — building a structure over 70,000-year-old bones, you’ve got a lot of complications.”

The final building and the entire construction process are designed to avoid contact with those exposed bones still buried at the site, plus areas where researchers believe more undiscovered bones may lie. Construction also will incorporate protective boxes for exposed bones, maintenance of the current fencing and tent protecting the bones, and supervision by Mayborn or city staff of any digging.

“We’ve checked these plans and the requirements with both the Mayborn and the National Parks, and we feel confident that these are the appropriate protections,” Fuller said.

The Waco Mammoth Foundation has raised the $3.4 million estimated for the first phase of the site, up from the initial $3.2 million, Young said, though there’s some concern that the rising costs of steel and fuel will put the project over budget.

If that happens, she said, “We start begging for more money.”

Young said the local community has been more than generous in the fundraising effort.

“It is something this community is very interested in,” she said. “I think they’ve really put their money where their mouth is.”

Fuller said in a best-case scenario, the site could be open as early as fall 2009, though weather or the possible discovery of new bones could delay construction.

Phase One of the site will include climate-controlled housing for the dig site, a visitors’ center, ticket entrance and infrastructure such as roads, water and sewage.

When construction begins, however, Young and the rest of the foundation already will be looking ahead to raising funds for Phase Two, to include an education center, informational kiosks, trails, bird-watching locations and a boat dock for possible water taxis.

“That will be the icing on the cake,” she said. “Right now, we’re providing the cake.”

The Mayborn Museum, 1300 S. University-Parks Drive, also has expanded its exhibit on the mammoth site with opportunities for more hands-on activities, a new book and DVD documentary, and a life-size mural of a Columbian mammoth by Huntsville artist Lee Jamison.

“We want people to see how enormous these things are,” Caston said, looking up at the 14-foot mammoth mural.

The mammoth’s head seems to brush the top of the ceiling, which has been raised to allow the creature to attain its full proportions and give visitors a true sense of its size.

“(It’s) even more overwhelming than I expected it to be,” Caston said.

The additions were funded by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Caston said.

The most important changes may have occurred behind the scenes, as the museum was able to purchase new storage units to better organize and display the fragile mammoth bones, which are not fossilized.

Caston said the exhibit helps maintain public excitement about the mammoths and give visitors an experience as close to the actual site as possible. Once the Waco Mammoth Site is complete, she sees the museum exhibit as an accompanying attraction that provides a continuing chronicle of the mammoths’ changing story.

“Eventually, we will probably start excavating again,” Caston said. “Who knows where the story will go from there?”

khahn@wacotrib.com

757-5735

—— Facts, figures on Columbian mammoths ——

* Species name: Mammuthus columbi.

* Alias: Mammu-thus jeffersoni, named for fossil enthusiast and ex- president Thomas Jefferson.

* How mammoth: Up to 14 feet tall, weighing 6-10 tons.

* Tusks: Spiraled, up to 16 feet long.

* On the menu: Range grass, conifers, giant fruit.

* Up for debate: How much hair they really had. Some suggest the head was hairy, the rest more elephant-like.

* Home on the range: Southern half of North America and into Mexico.

* Bygone data: The species went largely extinct about 12,500 years ago, though some specimens still roamed 7,500 years ago.

* Waco’s claim: Scientists say the Waco Mammoth Site has the largest known concentra- tion of mammoths perishing from the same catastrophic event, either a flash flood or mudslide.

Source: BBC