Columbian Mammoth

Washington designated the Columbian mammoth as its state fossil in 1998. Mammuthus columbi was the largest mammoth species to live in North America — bigger and far less hairy than the woolly mammoth, adapted to grasslands and forests rather than Arctic tundra. Washington's petrified wood serves as the state stone and is itself a fossil, making the Columbian mammoth one of two fossil-type symbols the state officially recognizes.

The Columbian mammoth was one of the largest land animals ever to live in North America. Males stood up to 13 feet at the shoulder and weighed as much as 10 tons, larger than any living elephant today. Their tusks curved dramatically outward and upward and could reach 16 feet in length. Unlike the woolly mammoth, which had thick fur for cold tundra conditions, the Columbian mammoth had little to no fur and lived in warmer, more varied habitats including grasslands, river valleys, and open forests.

The Columbian mammoth ranged from Alaska to Central America and co-existed with woolly mammoths in the northern parts of its range. The two species may have interbred where their territories overlapped. Both went extinct about 10,000 years ago as the Pleistocene ended, habitats shifted, and human hunters spread across the continent.

Washington designated Mammuthus columbi as its official state fossil in 1998. By that point, Columbian mammoth remains had been found at multiple sites across the state, including the Olympic Peninsula. The Columbian mammoth's wide range along the Pacific Coast and its status as the largest mammoth in North America made it a fitting symbol for the state.

In 2005, seven years after the designation, a high school student discovered a nearly complete Columbian mammoth skeleton in the Wenas Valley near Ellensburg in Yakima County. The find, one of the most complete Columbian mammoth skeletons recovered in the Pacific Northwest, drew renewed attention to Washington's Pleistocene fossil record and the ongoing significance of the state fossil choice.

Columbian mammoth fossils have turned up across Washington in glacial deposits, river gravels, and lake sediments laid down during the Pleistocene. The Olympic Peninsula in western Washington has produced mammoth remains, and central and eastern Washington — particularly the Columbia Plateau and Yakima Valley — have yielded significant specimens.

The Wenas Creek Mammoth, found near Ellensburg in 2005, is among the best-preserved Columbian mammoth skeletons ever found in the Pacific Northwest. Estimated at roughly 16,000 to 20,000 years old, it was discovered by a student during a paleontology field camp. The Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture in Seattle holds specimens from Washington's Pleistocene record alongside the state's broader natural history collections.