MILLERSBURG, Ohio — A 12-year-old boy made a find for the (ice) ages, plucking a woolly mammoth tooth from an Ohio creek bed.
Jackson Hepner was at a family reunion July 26 when he found the partially buried tooth lying out of the water in Honey Run Creek.
"It's just a neat find," Jason Nies, who runs the resort and hosted the family reunion, told WEWS. "It's not every day you get to touch and feel and see a mammoth tooth."
Scholars identified the tooth as the upper third molar from a woolly mammoth. While mammoth and mastodon fossils look similar, their teeth are different. Woolly mammoths have molars that are flat. Mastodon have raised, rounded ridges on their molars.
"We're thrilled to be the site of a unique and special find that proves there could be some hidden treasures among the rolling hills of Ohio's Amish Country still waiting to be uncovered," the resort said in a statement.
Nies plans to take the tooth to Jackson to share at his school. He hopes to later keep it on display at the resort.
Jackson is patiently waiting for the tooth’s return.
"I would like to have my tooth back in my hands as soon as possible," he wrote in a letter. "I want to show my friends."
