Tuesday, January 31, 2012

The Tar Pits and Pink’s

Jill's Journal: There’s a small lake in Los Angeles which may cause a passerby to do a double-take: a family of life-sized Columbian mammoths is helplessly watching one of their members meet an untimely end in the lake. The mammoths may be models, but they tell a true story at the La Brea Tar Pits.

In the 1800s, asphalt was mined from the area where the lake appears today. Rain and groundwater soon filled the quarry to form this lake. Oil slicks of asphalt are visible on the top, as are constant large bubbles composed of methane escaping from fissures beneath the lake. About a hundred years ago, it was discovered there was much more than tar to be found here.

The mammoths are showing how an animal might get trapped in the tar while either unknowingly walking across a thin layer of leaves and dirt or simply trying to get a drink of water. Herd members would be powerless to help. Predators, like saber-toothed cats or dire wolves, would attack and then become trapped in the tar themselves. These “death traps” account for the massive amount of fossils found and preserved in the tar. Over 100 tons of bones have been recovered from the tar pits over the last century. Most are from the Ice Age. Interestingly, one human – a Native American woman believed to be a few thousand years old – was also found.

We headed inside the adjacent George C. Page Museum to see several of the fossils recovered from the tar pits.

The girls’ favorite part was probably learning first-hand how hard it is to pull something out of sticky tar.

The paleontology lab is called “the fishbowl” because visitors are welcome to watch the ongoing work.

One of the projects they’re currently working on is uncovering Zed’s skull. Zed is a Columbian mammoth and parts of him are on display all over the museum.

Here’s an intact Columbian mammoth. Look how big these guys were compared to Victoria standing there! They are different from wooly mammoths and were apparently very common to this area, as were camels, bison, ground sloths, and many others we don’t think of as North American animals.

Check out the fangs on a saber-toothed cat! A large number of these muscular, vicious predators have been found in the tar pits. We learned very quickly they’re officially called cats and not tigers.

Over 1,600 dire wolves (similar to today’s timber wolves) have been found to date in the tar pits; here’s just over 400 of their skulls.

This was a mother and baby American mastodon (ancestor of today’s elephant) who were trapped together in the tar pits.

An observation pit is nearby.

The most prolific of the La Brea Tar Pits has been Pit 91. Excavation of Pit 91 was started in 1969 and is still ongoing. Thus far, the excavation has gone 12 feet deep and has recovered over 50,000 fossils, including rodents, plants, and insects.

Tools of the trade.

After leaving the tar pits, we walked out to find a parking ticket had just been placed on our car – only the second one ever for either Rob or me! We’d paid the parking meter, but it would only accept money until 4:00pm and it was just after that time. We’d seen a sign that the meter was invalid after 4:00pm and we mistakenly thought that meant free. What we quickly learned the hard way is that no parking is allowed on major streets in L.A. after that time…first they ticket you and then they tow you! Apparently we’d missed the memo. We were mightily annoyed until we saw two cars just up the street, parked like us, getting towed. We thanked our lucky stars we “just” got the annoying ticket instead of a tow as well.

We decided to drown our sorrows with a visit to the original Pink’s, the most famous hot dog stand in Los Angeles and arguably the country. The Hollywood landmark is located at Melrose on La Brea and has been in the same spot since 1939, when it started as a pushcart with 10-cent chili dogs during the depression. Paul Pink, the founder, built the small building in 1946 and it’s still family-owned.

Pink’s now has several other locations throughout Southern California and even Las Vegas, but this is where it all began. Very little has changed here in the last 73 years.

The walls are covered with autographed photos of what has to be hundreds of celebrities who have visited.

Humorously, only two of our family members even like hot dogs (and I’m not one of them), but when in Rome…!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

My dear son, how many times have Dad and I told you about Pink's, The original Brass Rail Gunshop was next door to Pink's. Pink's hot dogs were okay but you we used to feed his burgers to the over sized german shepherd guard dog Alf. Then when I was at the Rail after work with Dad and John my job was to walk Alf or rather for him to walk me through the neighborhood at which time he ate all the newspapers he could find to help pass his ????dinner. It may be famous but we never said it was good. Back then the Big Weinie on Hollywood blvd in the parking lot behind the street facing storefronts was the place to get great hot dogs. Pink's is famous because he's survived longer than the competition. Another great spot is the original Tommy Burgers [Chili burgers] down by Queen of Angels hospital on the corner of Beverly and Rampart. The Rampart police station made this place famous. Very good chili burgers just TAKE THEM HOME, They taste great, they just have no staying power. I spent many years while dating Dad feeding Alf Pink's food and enjoying Tommy's.
Mom W.

gretchenhs said...

Steve will enjoy reading all about the mammoths, I had no idea they were in LA! I know he'd like to visit there!