Mastodon Camp will return with a vengeance next year

The DuPage County Forest Preserve District anticipates a mammoth expansion of its popular Mastodon Camp next year.The district partnered with Chicago's Field Museum this summer to excavate the remains of a prehistoric creature that died in Pratt's Wayne Woods 11,500 years ago.A team of area teachers and students converged on the Bartlett preserve in August for two weeks. With assistance from district naturalists and Field Museum paleontologists and archeologists, they uncovered 1,000 pieces of mastodon tusk and bone."Their excitement and the opportunity for public interaction made this very special," district education director David Guritz said.The dig also attracted 500 visitors.Next year, officials plan to offer two sessions of Mastodon Camp, expand public tours and offer field trips for schools.Large fossilized molars and tusks were unearthed by accident in Pratt's Wayne Woods in 2005 by a contractor restoring a natural area in the preserve. Resembling elephants, mastodons were enormous creatures, standing up to 10 feet tall at the shoulders and weighing as much as 6 tons.Mastodon fossil sightings have occurred elsewhere in the suburbs, including Wadsworth, Antioch, Aurora and Glen Ellyn.