Waco Mammoth National Monument
Paul Barron and Eddie Bufkin set out to collect arrowheads and fossils near the Bosque River in 1978. To their surprise, they found something much larger — what is today known as the Waco Mammoth National Monument. Since its discovery, the site has revealed 24 adult and juvenile Columbian mammoths, a saber-toothed cat, a giant tortoise, a Western camel and an American alligator. For the next 30 years, Baylor professors led the way in studying and preserving what was found at the site. In the mid 2000s, Baylor and the City of Waco began working together to make the site accessible to the public for viewing; that debuted as the Waco Mammoth Site in 2009 before being accepted into the National Park System (NPS) as the Waco Mammoth National Monument (WMNM) on July 10, 2015.