There isn’t a museum or guided tours yet, but there is a pre-historic lakebed filled with fossils in Washington County.
A rare and extensive fossil site found in Gray by unsuspecting Tennessee Department of Transportation employees working to widen a highway has brought worldwide attention to this area.
While the site was first discovered in July of 2000, experts have estimated there is 50 to 100 years’ worth of digging ahead of the scientists who will work to uncover every fossil at the site.
Before leaving office, Gov. Don Sundquist awarded East Tennessee State University $8 million for a center to be located at the site. The university will contribute $2 million in matching funds.
Since the site was discovered ETSU has hired a vertebrate paleontologist and added a paleontology concentration to course offerings.
The site was discovered during excavation for work on State Highway 75. The find immediately halted work and eventually led to officials rerouting the road.
“It’s the largest find of that specific era anywhere in the country,” ETSU President Paul Stanton said.
The preserved animal bones and plant material has been reported to date back as far as 40 million years.
“We expect scientists to come from all over the world,” Stanton said. Already, experts have flocked to the site to help in the digging and identification process.
The site — located near Daniel Boone High School — gained even more notoriety earlier this year when part of a red panda tooth — the first ever found in North America — was discovered there.
“This single tooth is an important find for us. A unique find in that you wouldn't expect to unearth a fossil like this here. Important in that it's another link to the old world,” ETSU Paleontologist Dr. Steven Wallace said.
The tooth is said to date between 4.5 million and 7 million years old.
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