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This article was written in 2021 by OCC Student Hannah Hering during her practicum for the Library Services and Technology program.
Students and visitors of the Highland Lakes campus have probably come across Elmer. Elmer, also known as the Groleau-White Lake Mastodon, is an adult male mastodon that lived over 10,000 years ago. He was discovered in White Lake Township by a construction crew on M-59 between Elizabeth Lake and Williams Lake roads in 1968 and was unveiled on display at the OCC Highland Lakes Campus in 1982.
American Mastodons, or Mammut americanum, are prehistoric elephants and are one of the more well-known animals of the Ice Age, they are related to mammoths and today’s elephants. It is believed that ancestors of the American Mastodon came to North America from Siberia by the Alaskan-Siberian land bridge about ten million years ago. Mastodons lived almost everywhere in North America until they went extinct about 8,000 years ago.
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Only one-third of Elmer’s bones were found during excavation including his head, tail, and left side, which were reconstructed. The reconstruction began in September 1981 by an OCC college class and it took ten months to finish. Elmer was officially completed in June of 1982. Some of the bones on Elmer are real, while others are either casts of plaster or fiberglass or part bone and part cast. Elmer’s feet are actually casts of the feet of the Warren Mastodon, located in the American Museum of Natural History in New York, since no foot bones were ever found.
"Elmer is the second mastodon skeleton to be discovered and displayed in Michigan..."
Elmer received his nickname from the brand of glue which was applied to prevent the bones from drying and cracking. The mastodon's proper name was chosen by a vote from the students and comes from the location where he was found, White Lake Township, and the name of the construction company that originally found him, the Groleau Brothers Inc., who also donated him to the college.
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During the casting of his missing bones at the Natural History and Science Museum in Blairstown, New Jersey, he was first given the name “Titanic” before the name Elmer stuck.
Elmer is the second mastodon skeleton to be discovered and displayed in Michigan, and his story was featured in the 1983 National Geographic book Giants of the Past by Joseph H. Bailey. He is estimated to have weighed about 5.5 tons while he was alive. As skeletons make up about 16% of the animal’s weight, the OCC class was able to use the weight of Elmer’s skeleton at 885 pounds, to calculate what he might have weighed while living.
If you ever find yourself at the Highland Lakes campus, do come see Elmer in Levinson Hall where he is on display under a skylight and in front of a beautiful painting of what Oakland County may have looked like during his time.
More information on Elmer can be found in the OCC Archives Mastodon Records.
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