PORT ANGELES — Clare Manis Hatler will tell the story of the Manis Mastodon site at the North Olympic History Center’s History Tales presentation at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at the First United Methodist Church, 110 E. Seventh St.
The program will be held in the social hall of the church.
Parking and entry are on Laurel Street. History Tales is free and open to the public.
In 1977, Emanuel “Manny” Manis was digging a hole in his back yard to create a pond.
He was surprised to find bones and immediately asked his wife, Clare, to come and take a look. They decided to find experts to look at the bones. Although frustrated by dead-end phone calls, she would not give up and finally got in touch with Richard Daugherty, professor of anthropology at Washington State University.
Daugherty called in colleague Carl Gustafson and the adventure for the Manis family began.
Manny and Clare invited the archaeologists to “stay and learn as much as we could about this mastodon that had died in their front yard,” Gustafson said.
They learned as much as they could about the treasure coming to light and opened their property to visitors.
Almost 40 years later, the site made headlines again when a new study of the Manis mastodon provided proof of the oldest human settlement found to date in the Americas.
Hatler will talk about how she and Manny, who died in 2000, handled this significant archaeological discovery and “persevered to do the right thing,” the historical society said.
For further information, call the North Olympic History Center, formerly the Clallam County Historical Society, office at 360-452-2662 or email artifact@olypen.com.
