Let’s remember when some area men found Kennewick Man’s skull, on this day in 1996 (July 28)
You’re just innocently walking around the Columbia River — and poof! — you spot a 9,000 year old skull.
HistoryLink has the details:
On July 28, 1996, two young West Richland men are wading along the banks of the Columbia River near Kennewick when they step on something that looks like a big rock. When they pull it from the mud, they see that it is obviously a human skull. They turn it over to police. Scientific tests determine it is at least 9,200 years old, the remains of the man who becomes known as Kennewick Man.
Will Thomas, 21, and Dave Deacy, 19, both of West Richland, were wading in the Columbia River’s shallows at Columbia Park in Kennewick when Thomas stepped on something round in the mud. He thought it was a rock, but joked, “Hey, we have a human head” (Stang).
He reached into the water to pull it out and realized that it had teeth. It was a brown human skull. Thomas and Deacy stashed it in the bushes; they wanted to go watch the hydro races. After the races, they retrieved the skull, put it in a bucket and showed it to a Kennewick police officer.
Read the whole thing here:
