Over 100 islanders attended Orcas Center on Sunday, Nov. 2, to listen with rapt attention as archaeologists Dr. Michael Wilson and Stephen Kenady presented the latest scientific information about the Ice Age Bison antiquus and other now-extinct mammals found on Orcas Island. Recent tests revealed that the now famous Ayer Pond bison was killed by early hunters 11,990 years ago, some 200 years more distant than first thought.

Wilson discussed his own hunts for information about numerous ice-age finds on the island that were taken away from Orcas and stored in museums in the US and Canada. Micki Ryan, Director of the Orcas Museum said, “It’s amazing to imagine the San Juan islands supporting not only herds of huge eight-foot tall bison, but nine-foot ground sloths, short-faced bears almost twice the size of modern grizzlies, and very probably woolly mammoths. On Orcas they roamed open plains, marshes and emerging pine forests from 12,000 to 10,000 years ago. A marshy outwash plain spread as the last glacier retreated, opening a dispersal corridor for both animals and humans.”

The Ayer bison shows signs of on-site butchering and removal of the choicest “gourmet” cuts, according to Kenady’s painstaking research. Scientists speculate as to the mode of travel of these early hunters, suggesting that the western continent may have been explored through maritime routes rather than interior corridors, Ryan said.

Following the archaeologists presentations, the attendees enjoyed refreshments in the Madrona Room, where they met a six-foot tall chicken wire replica created by islanders Andrea Cohen and David Densmore. The chicken wire-bison’s colorfull knitted coat was prepared by 55 islanders including 27 students, grades one through 11, of Orcas Christian School.