Mom, Son Find Wooly Mammoth Tusks 22 Years Apart

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A western Alaska man has discovered a wooly mammoth tusk — 22 years after his mother found one in the same location.

The Alaska Dispatch News reports Andrew Harrelson, who grew up in White Mountain, found the tusk in a bend of the nearby Fish River.

Harrelson says he has a dim memory of his mother's discovery when he was 3 years old.

Harrelson now works in Nome but was in White Mountain over the weekend. After fishing for salmon, he decided to look for fossils, and spotted the 12-foot-long tusk.

Tusks of the extinct wooly mammoth are 12,000 to 400,000 years old.

Harrelson says he spotted the base of the mammoth tusk under a stump. White Mountain is a village of 200 about 63 miles east of Nome.

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