It’s hard to imagine 13-foot wooly mammoths and 6-ton mastodons roaming Snowmass ski resort and village, so the town has created ways to vividly transport people back more than 150,000 years to the Ice Age through illustrated depictions and viewfinders.

In 2010, a construction crew digging at Ziegler Reservoir in Snowmass discovered the richest Ice Age paleontological site ever found at high elevation. First, they unearthed the tusk of a female mammoth. Experts went on to find approximately 5,000 bones of 10 different mammals and more than 26,000 bones from small vertebrate animals. They uncovered 42 species total, from lizards, snakes, muskrats and beavers to bison, American camels and a giant ground sloth — the first found in the state.

“The Snowmass discovery is considered the world’s finest Ice Age fossil find,” says Virginia McNellis, marketing director of Snowmass Tourism.

In addition to the sheer quantity of bones that crews not only unearthed but that also remain in the ground, the site became scientifically significant with the discovery of plant and animal fossils from two different eras.

“The discovery itself was such an incredible experience,” McNellis says. “What started as a simple project quickly became a race to unearth thousands of years of history, which deeply changed the history of Snowmass.”

That history is now retold through the Snowmass Ice Age Discovery story, which features murals in Snowmass Mall and Snowmass Base Village, an oversized-storybook walk, window coverings on the Sky Cab (Skittles) Gondola and viewfinders installed on Spiral Point, which overlooks Zeigler Reservoir.

STEP INTO THE PAST

Snowmass Tourism offers a free “passport” to guide visitors. Once you sleuth out the questions, turn it into guest services for a special stuffed animal prize, while supplies last.

In Base Village, a contemporary mural of an Ice Age bison’s head portrays exactly how big the prehistoric beasts were and includes a cast of an actual skull, with horns measuring 6 feet, 4 inches from tip to tip. Another mural, located on the tower of Snowmass Mall, showcases flora and fauna found in the dig. Yet another illustrates the dig and its skeletons surrounding people as they walk through the pedestrian tunnel. Jeremy Collins, Bunnie Reiss and Kris Hewitt (aka Studio Kronk) created the murals.

“The excitement and significance of the discovery is used as the foundation of their work, but each mural depicts an element of the discovery in their own style. Kris Hewitt’s two-story bison face mural has a collage style that contains hidden images that depict the excitement of the community and scientists as they made the find. Bunny Reiss’ whimsical piece plays on the nickname given to the project by paleontologists, ‘Snowmastodon,’” explains Brianna Buffo, public relations representative for Snowmass.

Window coverings on the Skittles, which soars between the Base Village and Mall areas for free, also illustrate the Ice Age Discovery. Learn about the geology and how bones became deposited during two different glacial periods, view past and present plant species and see portrayals of Ice Age animals and the excavation process. QR codes allow adventurers to delve even deeper.

Hiking trails and a ski run — Dawdler — bring the story to life further. The green Dawdler trail, accessed from mid-station on the Village Express lift, includes three educational stations about the find. Other large signs on the Discovery Trail enrich hiker experiences. A panel at the bottom of Rim Trail talks about the dig. Viewfinders at Spiral Point allow you to peer into three different time periods, from when mammoths and sloths thrived upon the land to the 2010 dig.

Kids will love the storybook walk, featuring large pages from Amiee White Beazley’s Snowmastodon! Snow Day Adventure, a delightful story of a young mastodon and her best friend, Sloth, who challenge themselves to hike to the summit on a snowy day.

“In just a few months since our launch, visitors and residents alike have enjoyed many elements of the Snowmass Ice Age Discovery experiences,” Buffo says. “Each installation aims to balance art and science in a fun and engaging way. The narrative, designed by the Aspen Science Center, is intentionally designed to appeal to all ages and interest levels, making this a very well-received activation for the destination.”

Originally published in the Winter 2023-24 issue of Spoke+Blossom.