Judsonia weekly advance., 1917-03-07
PARK TO BE UNIQUE
LATEST ATTRACTION PLANNED
 FOR CITY OF LOS ANGELES.
Site of One of the Oldest Graveyards Known, Dating From the Pleisto- cene Period-Deathtrap
 for Animals.

No other city in the United States can equal Los Angeles, Cal, in it's unique type of public park, made pos sible by the deeding recently by G. All Ian 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 this tract, hereafter to De 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- cated 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 mals of recent years. It was not until someone of 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 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
 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 l studied the pits and the composition of l their surroundings advance the theory | that the tar beds were in reality death- 1 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 l from the earth, and often will see ground squirrels, rabbits, hens and 1 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 1 day as the sun warns the pools.
 In the wonderful museum in Exposi- | tion park in Los Angeles have been as- l 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 l skeletons.
 It is planned by the county authori- l 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 matter of greater ease. It is probable that it will take year or more to develop the park as planned, but the supervisors have voted $25,000 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.