Clare Manis Hatler presents the story of the Manis Mastodon site, at the next Clallam County Historical Society History Tales.

Hatler’s presentation, “Is That a Mastodon in the Front Yard?” starts at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, May 6, at First United Methodist Church, 110 E. Seventh St., Port Angeles.

The program will be held in the social hall; parking and entry are on Laurel Street.

In 1977, Emanuel “Manny” Manis was digging a hole in his back yard to create a pond. He was surprised to find bones and immediately asked his wife Clare to come and take a look. Although frustrated by dead end phone calls, Clare would not give up and finally got in touch with Dr. Richard Daugherty, Professor of Anthropology at Washington State University. Dr. Daugherty called in Dr. Carl Gustafson, and the adventure for Manis family began.

Manny and Clare invited the archaeologists to “stay and learn as much as we could about this mastodon that had died in their front yard,” Gustafson stated. They learned as much as they could about the treasure coming to light and opened their property to visitors.

Almost 40 years later, the site made headlines again when a new study of the Manis mastodon provided proof of the oldest human settlement found to date in the Americas.

Hatler will talk about how she and Manny, who died in 2000, handled this significant archaeological discovery and persevered to do the right thing.

History Tales is free and open to the public.

For more information, call the Clallam County Historical Society’s office at 360-452-2662 or email to artifact@olypen.com.