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ELLENSBURG, Wash. -Lights. Camera. Action. Central Washington University's Wenas Creek Mammoth Field School got some extra attention this summer as a film crew was on site shooting footage for a documentary they're producing. The documentary, titled "Journey to 10,000 B.C.", is set to air on the History Channel in March 2008.
"We're painting a picture of what life was really like around 10,000 B.C.," said David Padrusch, Limulus Productions, director/producer of Journey to 10,000 B.C. "I go into the field and say, 'here's a bone, now let's recreate the past with animation.'"
The crew of four, plans to bring the history of the area to life through film by combining the footage they've collected of the excavation with animation.
"As I was researching for the show, an archeologist I contacted told me I should call Dr. Pat Lubinski (CWU assistant professor of anthropology) because he's digging up a mammoth," explained Padrusch. "Two phone calls later, I'm at this great site."
Padrusch couldn't say enough great things about Central's field school dig site in the Wenas Creek Valley near Selah, Wash. He was impressed by the fact that you can drive right up to it and that's it's so accessible.
"The bones look like they're in pretty good condition," Padrusch commented. "I'm thrilled. Everyone has been incredibly nice."
He said that's not always the case when a film crew comes in. The camera tends to add some extra tension in the air. Having additional people on location can also change the mood a bit.
The sounds at the dig site change some too. Along with the sound of trowels scraping against rocks and dirt, and the clatter of debris as it's being shaken through screens, you could hear the director calling out camera shots, demanding audio levels and microphones be checked, and shouting out directions to his crew and field school participants in order to capture the perfect shot.
For the past three summers, faculty and students have come from across the nation to take part in Central's Mammoth Field School. The field school began in 2005 after a construction crew working on a driveway found a large bone, believed to be a humerus of a mammoth from about 16,000 years ago.
The continued success of Central's Field School and the notoriety it has received around the world is what led Padrusch to Central. Since the dig began two years ago, participants have found hundreds of bone fragments including pieces of mammoth vertebrae, scapula and rib bones, as well as what's believed to be a bison bone in the middle of the mammoth bones. Excavators also found a human artifact, a flake from a stone tool or the making of a stone tool, which if linked to the bones could predate when humans first arrived in the Pacific Northwest by a few thousand years
Jake Shapely, CWU graduate student and field assistant, is writing his thesis on the Wenas Creek mammoth and is excited about his final year on the project. "I'm hoping to find more artifacts or more evidence of humans being involved," he said. "I've been involved with this project since it began and this is my last year. I'm hoping to find more bones, hopefully something that's indicative to the species and sex of the mammoth."
As the field school project nears the end of this year's session, Padrusch is just getting started on his project. Central's dig site was the first shoot on his production schedule for his film. He will also shoot at sites in Arizona, British Columbia and Colorado.
For the CWU Wenas Creek Mammoth Field School, the opportunity to be included in a documentary of this caliber is priceless.
"It's great to get this kind of exposure for the program," said Lubinski, who, along with Shapely was a key narrator for the shoot.
The film project also allowed Mike Fessler, a Central student who will graduate with a double major in broadcast journalism and political science in December 2007, a chance to work with an established director/producer on a major film project that will air on the History Channel. Fessler worked with the four-man film crew as the audio technician. He said it was a great opportunity to do some networking and get some hands-on experience in his field.
"It's a little different working on something this big," Fessler said. "I look forward to doing more of this type of thing when I graduate."
With the final week of this summer's session upon them, the excavation team at the Wenas Creek mammoth field school is working diligently to uncover as much as possible before wrapping it up for another year. They can expect one more important visit on Aug. 11 when CWU alumni and Washington state government dignitaries tour the site as part of an event sponsored by CWU Alumni Relations.
Central's Wenas Creek Mammoth Project is open to visitors through Aug. 8, 2007. A live Web camera provided by Fairpoint Communications and the CWU/ITS Web Office is also available at www.fairpoint.net/~mammothdig. For more information about the Wenas Creek mammoth dig, visit www.cwu.edu/~masters/mammoth.html.
Contact: Dr. Patrick Lubinski, CWU associate professor anthropology, 509-963-2654,
lubinski@cwu.edu
Teri Olin, CWU Public Relations & Marketing, olint@cwu.edu, 509-963-1416
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