This is the second in a series of about 42 short stories of my Life On The Last Frontier during the early 1970’s

Buried Treasure
A true story by Larry Owen

If you should ever have the opportunity to travel to Alaska, by all means take advantage of it. Alaska is a vast land filled with adventure and breathtaking scenery. Alaska is so vast that it extends further West than Hawaii and has more coastline than the entire Continental United States.

Alaska is a land whose history reaches back to ancient times, remnants of which are often discovered in its ice blue glaciers and frozen tundra. On one occasion I was able to acquire a piece of this ancient heritage from a gold miner who had come down from North of Fairbanks to the Matanuska Valley bearing an ancient relic from the past on his flatbed truck. He had mined this relic from the frozen tundra in his quest for gold. He knew that his find was valuable, so it was his intention to find a buyer to raise much needed cash for his mining operation.

On the day he came into the area it was my good fortune to meet up with him just outside of Palmer, Alaska. I immediately recognized the unmistakable form of a mastodon tusk on the bed of his truck. It was encrusted with mud and gravel, but it was undeniably a piece of ancient ivory that had survived for tens of thousands of years frozen in the tundra near the confluence of the Faith, Hope & Charity creeks north of Fairbanks. Having traded in gold and ivory I made the gentleman an offer of $2,500 cash for his prize. Although he was hesitant to accept my offer, he gave in. We struck a deal and shook hands on it. I told him that I would be back within an hour with $2,500 in cash. I made a beeline for the Credit Union in Wasilla, Alaska, and took out a 30 day signature loan for the money. I drove back to where the miner was parked and counted out the money to him in 100 dollar bills. He agreed to drive the mastodon tusk over to my shop and drop it off.

Something that is critical when exposing such a piece of ivory to the open air after thousands of years of being buried in the ice is to keep it from drying too fast. To accomplish this I carried the tusk into my shop, washed it off with a garden hose and wrapped it in burlap. I then soaked the burlap with mineral oil. The tusk was in such good condition that the tip was still intact. It weighed 130 lbs. And was 9 ½ ft. Long. It is unusual to find such a relic completely intact without being broken because the tip usually gets broken off when the tusk is removed from the frozen ground.

Three weeks after I bought the tusk described above I was able to sell it to an ivory trader for double what I paid and was able to repay my 30 day note a few days prior to its due date with interest due of $90. I was able to walk away with a profit of $2,410 in less than 30 days. To this very day I very much regret having sold such a splendid piece of Alaskan history. At one time this tusk had been part of a living Mastadon roaming the arctic regions of the far north. What stories could have been told if this ancient relic could have talked!