These teeth, actually tushes, or tusks, from a prehistoric Peccary, are just incredible. They are about four inches in length, and came out the side of the jaw of the pig like creature that wore them. I suppose they were a significant find when I uncovered them, in a cave, some 25 years ago. I had no idea what they were then, and only after some State Archeologists dug in the same cave about 5 years later and found more remains, and identified them as a previously unknown Prehistoric Peccary, did I realize what I had.
Here is how I found them.
In about 1988, I finally located a cave that I had been searching for ever since I had read an account from an early explorer, John Haywood, , written and published in 1823, “The Natural and Aboriginal History Of Tennessee”. John Haywood was a great collector of the early stories, taken down from the early settlers, still alive in his time, and faithfully transcribed to his journals.
I was particularly drawn to Haywood’s account of the Mounds of Bledsoe’s Lick, in Sumner County, Tennessee, because Denise and I lived, in a log cabin, just a mile and half from the Mounds when we had first gotten married. Sumner County, Tennessee is so full of early American history that it would take several lifetimes to study all the accounts and sites. However, one of his accounts, in his book, told of a find, in a dig of the Mounds of Bledsoe’ Lick, in 1800, and this I found profoundly interesting, Haywood says, “…also found in the in the graves (Mounds) were decayed human bones, and the bones of animals, amongst which was the jaw bone with the tusk attached to it, of some unknown animal. The jaw bone is about an inch and a half in length, the tusk is in the same form as that of Cuvier’s Mastodon….”.
That, I found to be a wonderful mystery, one that I was drawn to search for. The account goes on to say, “Not more than two hundred yards from the great mound at Bledsoe’s Lick is a cave in which, when first discovered, was a great number of human skulls.” It is believed that these skulls were the result of human sacrifice practiced by the mound builders. These human skulls, had been removed, early in 1800, and are now residing in what is now The Tennessee Museum.
Well that was all that was needed to send me searching. Man, “The Cave Of Skulls”, right here close to my house. Trouble was, at that time, 1985-88, none of the old timer’s in the community of Castalian Springs, Tennessee, (what had been known as “Bledsoe’s Lick”), seemed to know where the cave was located. I had walked the woods and creeks, searching tirelessly, with no success.
My friend, Ron Thompson, an Executive in Finance from California, had come to visit and stay awhile with Denise and I, and he loved history and searching for artifacts as much as I did. We would either be fishing or artifacts hunting all day, every day.
The morning sun came up on a blue bird blue sky, the Spring of ’88, a perfect day for exploring the woods around Bledsoe Creek, and especially searching around the walled up spring that had been the water supply for Bledsoe’s Fort. I had been over this area several times, in the past, but I had an extra pair of eyes now. Ron hollered over to me, “Hey, what do you think of this big rock?” I made my way up the ridge, and from the angle of which I was approaching this big rock, I could see a dark space under it. The rock was half buried in the soil and covered with moss, but that space under it looked inviting. Both of us heaving and lifting and the rock moved back enough for us to see that it had been hiding a cave entrance. We moved the rock back far enough that we could wiggle down into this dark hole, drop down about 5 foot to a small room and passageway. I was really excited, for I knew this was the Skull Cave, and it was rumored that it connected to another very large entrance on the solid rock cliff along Bledsoe Creek. That entrance had been covered up with the rising water from the construction of Old Hickory Dam on the Cumberland River, which Bledsoe Creek ran into, about two miles away.
Ron had been carrying our flashlight, and he shined it into the farther reaches of the passageway, which opened up to a pretty large room. It was solid rock all around the walls and ceiling, but the floor was dirt, which had washed in during eons of time, since it had been a wet cave, and at one time had water running thru it. We started on back further to explore, going beyond the big room and here it narrowed down again. I got on my hands and knees, for awhile, and then had to go onto my stomach when the ceiling got so low I could barely get through. I had been crawling, using Ron’s flashlight, when I came around a slight bend, and there, right in the middle of the cramped passageway was a pile of animal skat as big as my ball cap. One thing I was not looking forward to was a face to face with some animal that was big enough to pass that! I quickly scooted backwards to where I could stand up again. Telling Ron what I had seen, we decided to vacate the premises. Walking back into the big room, my foot stepped on a flat rock on the floor, and it made a hollow sounding noise. We lifted up the rock and the dirt was pretty soft under it. I had a feeling about this….we needed to go get a shovel. We ran to the house and got the shovel and hurried back to our found cave. Getting back to the big room we started digging. We started finding bones, and after making sure they were not human, we kept going. Lying in a crevice, about 2 foot down in the dirt, between two rocks that provided a resting place, was the teeth of an animal. At first I thought maybe we had found the remains of a Saber Tooth Tiger, and I was pretty excited. I was also getting really light headed, as was Ron Thompson, beside me. We never figured if it was some kind of gas, or just a lack of oxygen, but we gathered up our find and headed for the cave entrance.
The teeth, or tusks, are beautifully preserved, although very fragile, and have become a centerpiece of my artifact collection. I went on thinking for about 5 years that they might be from a saber tooth cat, but then, after Denise and I had moved to Branson to do another television network, my daughter, Marilyn, who along with her husband Richard, had also been in the cave with us when we came back with the shovel, called me one day and said, “Dad you are not going to believe what was on the Nashville news today.”
Well, it seems that a group of Archeological students, along with their Archeologist Professor, had found the “Cave of the Skulls” in Bledsoe’s Lick, went in and dug and found the remains of a, “heretofore unknown, Cave Living, Prehistoric, Peccary.” They had found almost a full skeleton, with the exception of…..the jaw, teeth and tusks. I guess from the excitement generated, it was a pretty big deal.
Several years later, after we had sold our tv network and moved back to Sumner County, Tennessee, I went over to the area where we had found the “Cave Of The Skulls.” The rock, that used to cover the entrance, is long gone. The entrance is now covered with a steel door, locked and sealed. Well, I reckon no future wild Peccary’s are welcome to nest inside that cave. Yessir, the big boys have found it and no amateurs are allowed inside…. including, I suppose, the animal that had left the big pile of poop to scare me.
Some day, when I get tired of searching for knowledge of prehistory, I will probably let the archeologists have my collection, including the tusks they could never find, but for now, I enjoy my finds, cherish them in fact, and I take very good care of them in my own private museum. It is my connection to John Haywood, and his Aboriginal History Of Tennessee.
The picture below is from a museum that has a full skeleton, and the other picture is the tusks from my collection. I have researched a lot, and never found any pictures of tusks as long as mine. Stan
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