A bone rush could be underway in New York City‘s East River after a Wooly mammoth expert revealed the location where 500,000 tusks were reportedly dumped.
Speaking on the Joe Rogan podcast, gold miner turned bone mogul John Reeves said he wanted to kick off ‘bone rush’ and mapped out the location of 50 tons of mammoth tusks that could be at the bottom of the East River.
Reeves, who made a fortune finding perfectly-preserved mammoth bones in Alaska, said a shipment of 500,000 tusks sent from Fairbanks to New York City’s American Museum of Natural History were tossed out in the 1940s.
Wooly mammoth Tusks can go for around $20,000 each depending on their condition, putting the potential value at the bottom of the river at around $1 billion.
‘If any of you guys want to go out and find some bones I’ll tell you exactly where the f*** they’re at,’ Reeves said as he laid out the location at East River Drive and 65th Street. ‘They’re finders keepers.’
Some boners, the term used for people who search for valuable bones, have already taken up the call, sharing videos of their trips to the East River.
Alaskan gold miner turned mammoth expert John Reeves revealed the location of 500,000 tusk bones allegedly dumped in the middle of New York City’s East River
Reeves said the tusks were dumped by ‘mistake’ along the East River Drive near 65th Street
The revelation has kicked off a bone rush, with fortune seekers already out on the river in search of the tusks, which could fetch $20,000 a piece
All together, the tusks, which were reportedly dumped in the 1940, are valued up to $1 billion
Citing a draft report from the Fairbanks mining District Alaska, Reeves said that gold miners shipped off 500,000 tusks to New York because the owners saw ‘no value.’
‘You got to remember this was in 1928 to 1958,’ Reeves told Rogan. ‘People, you know miners, didn’t collect the bones.’
According to the report about the tusks, ‘mistakes’ were made over the condition of the bones shipped to New York and they were dumped in the river at the former New York City Hospital dump site.
Reeves also questioned if the error led to additional artifacts bound for the American Museum of Natural History to be dumped in the East River.
Although Reeves said the exact method and location of the dump was unknown, he noted that mammoth tusks were dense and would not float away, suggesting they could still be somewhere at the bottom of the river.
Reeves mused: ‘If I was listening to your podcast, and I happen to have a boat, and I happen to have a little scuba equipment?’
Rogan was also enamored by the prospect of the successful bone rush that Reeves was proposing.
‘Do you know how crazy it would be if there’s f****** mammoth bones right there in the East River,’ Rogan said.
‘Dude let me tell you something about mammoth bones mammoth tusks, they’re extremely valuable,’ Reeves replied.
Alaskan miners who saw no value in the tusks allegedly shipped them off to New York City’s American Museum of Natural History. Pictured: Tusks found in 1907 in an Alaskan expedition
Reeves (right) said he wanted to kick off a bone rush. The gold miner has found thousands of preserved bones on his land
Since finding Mammoth bones decades ago, Reeves has built up a collection dubbed the Boneyard Alaska that houses his rare specimens
Pictured: Wooly mammoth tusks found on Reeves’ land
Reeves, a self-made millionaire, knows a little something about the value of tusks after discovering perfectly-preserved mammoth bones as he was mining for gold in Alaska.
Reeves, owner of the Fairbanks Gold, LLC, owns thousands of acres of mining grounds along rivers in the state.
In an interview with academic researchers, Reeves described himself as a champion swimmer who went to college in Florida before deciding to join prospectors in Alaska searching for gold.
In the 1980s, Reeves bought a gold dredging site outside Fairbanks, which was transformed into a tourist site where visitors could search for gold along the river. The site has since been sold to Holland America.
Reeves moved on to expand his stake in mining grounds in Fairbanks, buying up state and federal land as well.
In a 2012 National Geographic documentary following Ice Age fossil collectors in Alaska, Reeves boasted that he had found thousands of specimens on his land.
While his fellow miners quipped that searching for gold is more lucrative, Reeves said he’s become a passionate collector of the ancient bones.
‘Mammoth tusks are more fun to look at,’ he had said. ‘I like them more than the stacks of $100 bills.’
