By J.B. Smith

Tribune-Herald staff writer

The Statue of Liberty. Devils Tower in Wyoming. Fort Sumter, S.C. America has 100 national monuments, and now the Interior Department wants to add the Waco Mammoth Site to that illustrious list.

Under the Interior Department’s final recommendation, the site along the Bosque River would become a unit of the National Park Service, which would take the lead in curating it in conjunction with Baylor University and the city of Waco.

U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, called the announcement a “dream come true” and introduced a bill Friday to authorize the designation. If that bill is approved by Congress and signed by the president, Edwards will seek an appropriation to help develop the site as an educational and research resource. “As someone who has worked on this project for more than nine years, I’m going to make it one of my highest priorities to make sure we get this authorized and funded,” Edwards said. “I will go to the wall and beyond to make sure this is authorized as part of the park system.”

Multimedia

• Video: Mammoth construction site footage

Sharon Fuller, city parks planner, stands in front of the structure now being built to protect the exposed skeletons of 68,000-year-old mammoths. The site will open to the public later this year. (Duane A. Laverty photo)

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An aerial view shows the mammoth site in November as work was beginning on a structure to protect the bones. (Rod Aydelotte, file photo)

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Plywood boxes cover the exposed mammoth bones during construction of the shelter. (Duane A. Laverty photo)

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It’s not yet known when the designation will be approved or how much federal money is attached, but a National Park Service study has estimated that the national monument option could be funded by $300,000 a year from local sources and $340,000 a year from the federal government.

Community leaders have worked for more than a decade to preserve the archaeological dig and turn it into an educational attraction. After a $3 million fundraising campaign for a protective structure over the mammoth skeletons and other improvements, the site off Steinbeck Bend Road is due to open to the public later this year.

Discovered in 1978, the site contains at least two dozen Columbian mammoths that died in a mudslide some 68,000 years ago. Baylor scientists have excavated some of the skeletons, while some remain buried and some are exposed to view.

The National Park Service has been studying the site for possible inclusion in the national park system for several years, but city officials didn’t know until this week what kind of designation the site would get.

Waco Mayor Virginia DuPuy said the partnership is just the right balance in participation by the federal government, which will oversee the archaeology, and the city of Waco, which will develop tourism at the site.

“This is a huge day,” DuPuy said at a news conference. “It’s monumental. Mammoth, in fact. . . . The timing couldn’t have been more perfect.”

City leaders credited the project’s success to Edwards, Baylor and philanthropists such as F.M. and Gloria Young, Paul and Jane Meyer and the late Sam Jack and Elizabeth McGlasson, who donated the site to the city.

City Manager Larry Groth said the designation should accelerate development of the site, which could include camping, nature trails and a boat dock on the Bosque River. Groth said he would like to see the site cross-promoted with the Cameron Park Zoo, which has elephants, and Baylor’s Mayborn Museum, which has an exhibit on the mammoths.

Mayborn director Ellie Caston said Baylor will continue to be a research partner and will likely train volunteer docents to give tours.

jbsmith@wacotrib.com

757-5752