Discovering the Nation’s “Founding Fossils”

It’s a new season of A New York Minute in History! In this episode, our co-hosts dig into the 19th century discovery of mastodon remains in Orange County. The “Orange County Mastodon” was one of the earliest, if not the first, complete mastodon skeletons discovered in the U.S. These large fossils captured the attention of many of our nation’s Founding Fathers, who were determined to dispel the myth of American degeneracy.