Unveiling of the Woolly Mammoth Exhibit This Saturday!

The finishing touches are being applied to the SRAC woolly mammoth exhibit that includes two murals, movie kiosk, 3D landscapes and a woolly mammoth ten foot tusk, jaw and teeth that were excavated at Spring Lake, near Wyalusing, PA in 1983. The exhibit is the result of months of work by several artists, carpenters, and volunteers and is set to be unveiled this Saturday, April 3rd during an event that will run from 5-9pm.

The exhibit is based upon an excavation that occurred in 1983, in Asylum Township, Bradford County, PA near Wyalusing, when a worker was using a drag line that scooped up and moved the mud in a large bucket to clear an area at Walter and Jane Newton's Spring Lake. One of those scoops when emptied, dropped out a 30 - pound jaw of a Jefferson Woolly mammoth. This discovery excited the local archaeological Chapters and soon Carnegie Museum was heading up an excavation that would later be dubbed the most important excavation in Pennsylvania history.

During the summer and early fall of 1983, volunteers, professionals and local archaeological chapters worked side by side and uncovered many parts of the skeleton - but only bits and pieces of a broken tusk. It wasn't until they were ready to close the excavation that the other tusk would be found - in perfect shape and ten foot in length.

This past fall, the Allen Pierce Foundation donated $5,000 to the Andaste Chapter of PA Archaeology to get perfect replicas made by Carnegie Museum from the original jaw and tusk of the Jefferson woolly mammoth excavated at Spring Lake in 1983 to be on display at SRAC for generations to come. The tusk and jaw will be part of a huge exhibit dedicated to the archaeological chapter and others who were a part of that dig as well as to educate our community about the woolly mammoths and what life was like in our region 12- 15 thousand years ago.

The unveiling ceremony will include a brief opening ceremony that will include Pennsylvania Representative Tina Pickett, President of Andaste Chapter of PA Archaeology Mark Madill, SRAC's Deb Twigg and Ted Keir, and a news reel from the actual excavation in 1983. The unveiling will follow immediately thereafter. The night will also include a photo collage of approximately 200 photos from the actual excavation that will play in the lecture hall throughout the night. The public is invited to attend at any time throughout the event.

SRAC will also be conducting a fund raising raffle on the evening of April 3rd as a part of the grand opening of the new Woolly Mammoth Exhibit. There will be many items to win, and tickets will be available for $1 apiece. Buy as many chances to win as you like! There’s lots to win!

Lambert Chocolatier has donated a $95 milk chocolate Easter Bunny made from the finest chocolate in the region! It weighs nearly 4 pounds and is around 18 inches tall. You can see much more of what Hal and Janet have to offer at http://lambertchocolatier.com/. They have long been friends of SRAC……who can forget the chocolate arrow points!


SRAC wants to thank our new friends at the Ever After Store for their donation of the HUGE Jellycat Truffle Woolly Mammoth! We discovered the Ever After Store while searching for woolly mammoth toys. They have tons of awesome, high quality, toys and gifts. Check them out at www.everafterstore.com. You can also become a fan on their FaceBook page (and you can see all of their great deals!) http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tacoma-WA/EverAfterStorecom/280511870755. One lucky person will win our adorable 30” stuffed woolly mammoth………but now you know where you can get one if you don’t win…..;o)

In addition, the raffle will include a handmade baby quilt, an afghan, and various gift baskets including a wine basket, an Italian pasta basket, a welcome Spring gardening basket, a traditional Easter basket chock full of your favorite candy, and many more! Take a chance and support SRAC with your raffle ticket purchases!

Commemorative DVD's will be available at the event that will include the photo collection from the dig, newsreel from 1983, and a short video by Ted Keir about the excavation.

The event is free to attend and the agenda for the night is as follows: 4-5 pm - doors open to lecture hall; 5 - 6:15 - Unveiling of exhibit; 7:30 pm - REPLAY: News Reel from 1983; 8:30pm Raffle winners announced. Ongoing raffles/basket raffles, food and refreshments, & pictures from the 1983 dig playing in lecture hall throughout the night.

SRAC is located at 345 Broad Street in Waverly, NY. To learn more, visit www.SRACenter.org or email info@SRACenter.org.

SRAC Exhibit Hall Closed Until Unveiling - and an UPDATE!

At the end of the day today, the SRAC Exhibit Hall will be closed until the Woolly Mammoth Exhibit unveiling on Saturday, April 3rd from 5-9pm. The finishing touches to include painting the floor to resemble walking along a river path and other things that need to have a no traffic area so you'll have to wait until the unveiling event to see the finished product! Trust me when I say that this will be the talk of the Valley!

This past fall, the Allen Pierce Foundation donated $5,000 to the Andaste Chapter of PA Archaeology to get perfect replicas made by Carnegie Museum from the original jaw and tusk of the Jefferson woolly mammoth excavated at Spring Lake in 1983 to be on display at SRAC for generations to come. The tusk and jaw will be part of a huge exhibit dedicated to the archaeological chapter and others who were a part of that dig as well as to educate our community about the woolly mammoths and what life was like in our region 12- 15 thousand years ago.

The exhibit is more than the artifacts themselves however and includes work done by a team of several artists on a massive project that was designed by Brian Denlinger of Denlinger Designs. The team includes muralist, Peter Quiles, construction lead, Tom Vallilee and 3D art specialist, Frank Evans as well as Craig and Rita Maurey of Creative Designs who built the display case that the mammoth remains will be housed in. The exhibit is many months of hard work and community support with most of all the work done by volunteers. I think the community will be amazed at what we have created, as it will allow visitors young and old to feel as if they have walked into the past as the exhibit will come out from the walls with trees, water, and rock ledges...

The unveiling event will begin on Saturday, April 3rd at 5pm with an opening ceremony to include a news reel from 1983 at the actual excavation, special guest, PA Representative Tina Pickett, and others that will lead up to the unveiling at 6pm. The public is invited to visit throughout this free event.

Event Agenda

5 - 6:15 - Opening Ceremony

6:15 - Unveiling of exhibit



- Ongoing raffles/basket raffles, food and refreshments, & pictures from the 1983 dig playing in lecture hall throughout the night. Raffle tickets can be purchased for any item starting at 1pm on Tuesday, March 30th at 1pm and will continue through the unveiling event.Winners need not be present to win.

Items include several incredible raffle baskets as well as this huge 30-inch stuffed woolly mammoth donated to us for this special event by EverAfterStore.com! He sells for $59 regularly and can be yours for just one lucky $1 ticket!

Hal and Janet Lambert also donated a $95 milk chocolate easter bunny made from the finest chocolate in the region! They tell me it is nearly 4 pounds and is around 18 inches tall. Again, raffles begin on Tuesday!



7:30 pm - REPLAY: News Reel from 1983

8:30 pm - Raffle drawing winners announced

Update on the Woolly Mammoth Exhibit

Those of you that have been following the updates on the exhibit might recall that Tom Vallilee and Don Hunt were finishing up the overhead gridwork that will house the lighting over the murals and the storyboard.


In the meantime Frank Evans finished the trees and is working on the rock facing that will go on the front of our river system in front of all of the murals.

This past Saturday I was really glad to see my nephew Erik Franklin who came in - and got roped into helping me -- I have had a horrible cold with inner ear stuff going on to the point that being on a ladder was just asking for me to fall off...but work needed to be done....you know the way things go...


From noon to 4pm, Erik and Sam Ayers worked to get the blue paper up to cover the gridwork that Tom and Don hung all last week...(Note also the black curtains that Maryann Taylor is sewing to hang from the ceiling all the way around the exhibit!- - )



But WAIT - - that was just SATURDAY!

Enter - our muralist Peter Quilles on Sunday - who made the blue paper continue into the land (and time) of the woolly mammoth...

The next week will include adding the lights and then the storyboard and Maryann will be finishing the curtains around the top...The storyboard will soon go on the top edge of the blue facing into the room and the lights will be hung in the clouds between the mural wall and the storyboard.

The final week will cause us to close the exhibit hall completely until the unveiling as we need to paint the floor and do some other final touches such as put the tusk, jaw and teeth in the case and choose the images to place the case with them from the exhibit, and so much more.

With all of this going on you'd think we'd be going crazy -- - but the truth is that we have a great bunch of talented people who know what needs to be done and will do it. Although we have a time-frame we need to finish in, we have planned and worked long enough together that we feel confident that we will see this through - and that we will all be glad that we were a part of this incredible experience and resulting exhibit that undoubtedly will be the talk of the region for generations to come.

While some would call this work...we call it an experience we will be proud to have been a part of for the rest of our lives.

( ;

Even MORE Spring Lake Pictures!

This time we are previewing some of the photos that we had made from slides from the archaeologist that ran the excavation at Spring Lake, Dr. Stan Lantz. Special thanks to Stan for sending these great images to Ted just a week or so ago...Here's one of Dr. Lantz with the ten foot tusk ready to be moved. As many of you know this is the same tusk that was the highlight of the whole excavation and will be represented in our exhibit for generations to come.


Remember that ALL of the 200-some photos that we have pulled together from many sources will be on display on the big screen all night at SRAC at the Woolly Mammoth Exhibit Unveiling on April 3rd and dvd's with the collection of photos will be available. At that time we will be unveiling the huge exhibit that includes the Carnegie Museum perfect replicas made from the original ten foot tusk, jaw and teeth from the Jefferson mammoth excavated in 1983 at Spring Lake as well as two murals, kiosk with movies about the dig and our prehistory and so much more. Hope to see you there!

Easter Bunny Raffle - Buy your Tickets NOW!

As many of you know - the unveiling ceremony for the Woolly Mammoth Exhibit is free to the public. During the event however we will offer some opportunities for anyone who is interested in supporting SRAC with raffles and so on...We have some pretty incredible baskets being made up - and we also have some other items that should really be popular...

In fact right now, we have just opened the raffle on a chocolate 3 1/2 - 4 pound & approximately 18 inch tall milk chocolate Easter bunny shown here beside Janet Lambert in their shop, "Lambert's Chocolatier."

The bunny was donated by Janet and Hal Lambert who are nationally known for their incredible chocolates that are only available at certain times of the year. This bunny is heavy and she tells me it is semi hollow and if they HAD one for sale it would be priced at $95. Instead this is the only one and it will be go to some lucky soul Saturday, April 3rd (the day before Easter!) at the Woolly Mammoth Exhibit Unveiling event between 8 and 9pm.

The good news is that if you are not going to be able to attend, you can still buy raffle tickets and a chance to win between now and the event for $1 per ticket by using the paypal button below:

or by mailing a check for however many tickets you want to:

SRAC Easter Bunny Raffle
PO Box 12
Sayre, PA, 18840

I want to thank Hal and Janet for donating the rabbit that will be at SRAC starting next week but can be seen at Lambert's Chocolatiers in downtown Sayre until then...

Their shop is a magical place at Easter time as well as Christmas and is stocked to the ceilings with chocolates of every kind.

It is amazing to know that the chocolate will actually be sold out usually before the holiday arrives even though they are still making it for a while yet!

They have huge deliveries to NY City and so on as well....

And if you can't have the sugar - - NO WORRIES! They even have platters of sugar free chocolates!

I hope you stop in and see this magical place in downtown Sayre, and when you do - thank Janet for donating such a wonderful item to SRAC to use as a fundraiser.

More Pictures from the Spring Lake Mammoth Dig!

There are just a few weeks before we will unveil the huge woolly mammoth exhibit and just as a reminder, we are still taking photos from you to have on display during the event! The event will take place on Saturday, April 3rd from 5 - 9pm. Hope you plan to attend!

Dr. Stan Lantz, who ran the dig in 1983 has sent us a bunch of slides that we are currently having scanned and digitalized - and we want to thank him for being so thoughtful! We hope that he and many others from the dig in 1983 plan to attend the event as well!

We are closing in on 200 photos now that will be available the night of the event on dvd as part of the celebration. If you want to add that the collection, just place your name on the back of your photos and mail them (make sure to write your return address on your envelope so that we know who to return them to and where!) to:

SRAC Woolly Mammoth Photos
PO Box 12,
Sayre, PA 18840

Here are are some more of the photos that we have received! Stay tuned for more!

Shots from the Tanglewood Presentation at SRAC

We want to thank Bridgette Sharry and the Tanglewood Nature Center for presenting a wonderful program yesterday at SRAC - the following are images and a video from the Animals on Our River System event!

Thanks to everyone who came - It was a great time had by all!

ALL ABOUT FROGS!

Kids of every age enjoyed the event!

The hawk was a HIT!


BUT THE "CLOSER" FOR THE EVENT WAS...



MILLIE the Possum! AND SHE WAS THE CUTEST !
(We ALL got a chance to pet her too!)


Watch here!

The Daily Review did a nice write up here.