The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1917-03-08
PARK TO BE UNIQUE
--LATEST ATTRACTION PLANNED
FOR CITY OF LOS ANGELES.
Site of One of the Oldest Graveyards
Known, Dating From the PIeisto-
Gene Period-Deathtrap
for Animals.

No other city in the United States
can equal Los Angeles, Cal, in its
unique type of public park, made pos
sible by the deciding recently by G. AL
Ian Hancock of tract of 81 acres Of
lana at the city's western edge in the
famous La Brea asphalt beds. The
thing which makes this tract, hereafter
to be known as Hancock park, unique,
is the fact that it Is probably one Of
the Oldest graveyards of which any
thing is known, for it dates back to
the Pleistocene period. The tract, To-
Gated close to some of the best oil wells
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 mon
sters were found.
At first these bones were not deemed
of any great value, those finding them
having an idea that they were of AMI
mails of recent years. 1t was not until
someone of q scientific turn of mind
noticed that they were too large to be-
long 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 hundred excavations within
the tract, many of which have yielded
rich finds of well-preserved bones.
From the bones and teeth which
have been found, scientists have re-
stored the skeletons of many varieties
of animals, great and small, which
lived many thousands of years age.
1t 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 80 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 death
traps 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 warns the pools.
In the wonderful museum In EXPOSE
ton park in Los Angeles have been as
sembled 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 tigers, cave
bears, giant sloths, horses, lions and
mammoth birds that lived and died
10000 TO 100000 years ago. Besides
the mounted specimens, the store rooms
of the museum contain some 5000
boxes of unassorted bones, which will
later find their places In the restored
skeletons.
1t is planned by the county authori-
ties, to whom the tract has been deed
ed, 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. 1t is probable that it will
take year or more to develop the
park as planned, but the supervisors
have voted S25, ZOO as an initial appro-
priation for the work. Hancock park
will, when fully developed, become one
of the most interesting places in the
already interesting Southwest.