Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1917-03-09
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 Iequal 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 30 acres of
land at the city's western edge in the
famous La Brea asphalt beds. The
thing which makes this tract, hereafter
TO he known as Hancock park, unique,
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
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 a 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 a 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 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 so 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
| non park in Los Angeles have been as
sembled types of the animals which
-nce 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
| She bones in a wonderfully perfect
| state, making their study matter of
| greater ease. 1t is probable that it will
| take a year or more to develop the
| park as planned. but the supervisors
have voted $4,000 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.