THe Boneyard ALaska

What is…

The Discovery…

In 2007 John Reeves’ began routine exploration for gold on his patented mining claim in Fairbanks, Alaska and was struck by a unique smell. Shortly after panning samples and digging a test hole down to bedrock with his excavator, he found a complete 12 ft. mammoth tusk frozen in the muck layer - several feet above his goal of gold bearing gravels. That discovery, paired with the smell, sparked his curiosity. He thought, maybe there are more…

He decided to follow his nose and parked his excavator back at the shop and set up a hydraulic water cannon, a tool used by early gold miners in the area to prep the land for dredges. He chose to use water as his tool so he wouldn’t disturb any fossil fragments that might be there, as opposed to using more modern heavy equipment. The first day looking; him, his wife Ramona and their 5 kids, Maria, Lauren, Kinzey, Jordan and Ilaura discovered the matching mammoth tusk to the first one, as well as 100 or so more Ice Age bones. From that day forward, the hunt was on…

THe Early Years…

Shortly after the discovery of a matching set of mammoth tusks, the Reeves’ family decided to spend their entire summer searching for more fossils. At the time, the family did not realize the historical significance of the land that they were searching and couldn’t find the words to makes sense of it to anyone else, let alone themselves. Soon friends and co-workers were trying to make sense of it and kept questioning the family with the common theme, “What are you going to do with all of those bones?” To which they replied, “We don’t know.” But they kept looking.

John made some phone calls that first summer to the local university and soon into his search had a group of established paleontologists standing on his ground asking the same question he was, “Why are all of these bones here?”

After many meetings with Universities and paleontologists from all over the world he learned one thing; this site was interesting. Every meeting with people smarter than him ended the same way, with them wanting to know what was in it for them and where would they get the money to start an “exploration”. Even though one was already underway with money out of pocket from Reeves. One comment from a paleontologist left a taste in John’s mouth that he couldn’t quite swallow, “Well John, we all know that you’re in this for the money.”Quite the contrary. Up until this point the only money this site had seen was deficits from paying for fuel for the pump, hundreds of feet of hoses, clamps, crew time on dirt work, more fuel and for several hundred tubs to store bones from the local Home Depot. Value and making money was not in the equation and this quirky Alaskan family hunted for bones in the best way they knew how - they just got it done. Albeit might not have been the method taught in archeology or paleontology at university…

WHERE WE ARE NOW…

Fueled by a passion for the unknown, the Reeves’ family is relentless in their hunt to make and preserve our Earth’s Ice Age history. 18 years into this dig, the only answers to this site spark more questions. Scientific journals will not credit the Reeves’ family with discoveries to the area that rewrite the history of the landscape as mankind knows it.

If you research the fauna that roamed during the Ice Age you will find that Dire Wolves did not live in the Fairbanks region, but as Reeves said, “They sure as f*** died there.” The Reeves’ have at least 5 Dire Wolves in their collection. Not only is the Reeves’ family preserving all the specimens from this site, they are also preserving geologic remnants as well - including ash layers from massive fires or volcanic eruptions.

The Reeves’ plan to preserve the collection in perpetuity until they one day can be properly studied. Thank you for your interest in the discovery of The Boneyard Alaska, we take great pride in what we do and are grateful for your interest in the Earth’s living history.