Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 69, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 March 1917 — PARK TO BE UNIQUE [ARTICLE]

PARK TO BE UNIQUE

LATEST ATTRACTION PLANNED FOR CITY OF ANGELES. - _. . ( , Site of One of the Oldest Graveyards Known, Dating From the PlelstoE cone Period—Deathtrap for Animals. No other city in the United States can equal Los Angeles, in its unique type of public park, made possible by the deeding recently by G. Allan Hancock of a tract of 32 acres of land at the city’s western edge in the famous La Brea asphalt beds. The thing which makes thia tract, hereafter to be known as Hancock park, unique, is the fact that It is probably one of the oldest graveyards of which anything is known, for it dates back to the Pleistocene period. The tract, located close to some of the best oi 1 wel 1 s in the Southwest, has been the sources of both oil and asphaltum, and it was in pits from which the latter was taken that bones of prehistoric monsters were found. At first these bones were not deemed of any great value, those finding them having an idea that they were of animals of recent years. It was not until someone of a scientific turn of mind noticed that they were too large to belong to any modern animal, that the search for more bones gradually crowded the production of asphalt to the side, until, today, there have been made a hundred excavations within the tract, many of which have yielded rich finds of well-preserved bones.

Froin the bones and teeth which have been found, scientists have restored the skeletons of many varieties of animals, great and small,-which lived many thousands of years ago. It is believed that this is the only place and only Instance where the fauna of one period and One region have been preserved and handed down intact for modern man to study. If all the Pleistocene remains in all the museums of the world were to be brought together, the quantity would have to be multiplied by 50 in order to approximate the amount already taken from the La Brea beds, and the end is seemingly far off. Scientists who have studied the pits and the composition of their surroundings advance the theory that the tar beds were in reality deathtraps for the birds and animals which wandered through the section. Even today the visitor will see small pools of liquid asphalt which have oozed from the earth, and often will see ground squirrels, rabbits, hens and birds of various kinds which have been caught by foot or wing in the sticky tar, dying where Caught, and gradually sinking deeper into the asphaltum each day as the sun warms the pools. In the wonderful museum in Exposition park in Los Angeles have been assembled types of the animals which once roamed the region, whose bones have been taken from the La Brea pits, and these include mastodons, imperial elephants, saber-toothed tlgers, ®ve bears, giant Sloths, horses, Hons and mammoth birds that lived and died 150,000 to 200,000 years ago. Besides the mounted specimens, the store rooms of the museum contain some 3,000 boxes of unassorted bones, which will later find their places in the restored skeletons.

It is planned by the county authorities, to whom the tract has been deeded, to have set up about the park gigantic groups of statuary depicting the animals of the Pleistocene era. The asphaltum has served to preserve the bones In a wonderfully perfect state, making their study a matter of greater ease. It is probable that It will take a year or more to develop the park as planned, but the supervisors have voted $25,000 as an Initial appropriation for the work. Hancock park will, when fully developed, become one of the most interesting places in the already interesting Southwest.