Curiosities from the Museum: Lady Jeffery – 10/16/2024
Over the years at the Wenatchee Valley Museum, there have been some odd and strange things that have been donated to the collection. While some get displayed on exhibit, the majority of our collection is housed in our archives for historical preservation. For example, our prehistoric ground sloth fragments that use to be on display but now sit in a collection’s preservation room behind locked doors.
In July of 1998, the skull of a female prehistoric ground sloth was accidentally discovered on a farm in the Ancient Lakes area west of Quincy and east of the Columbia River. The animal was identified as a Megalonyx Jeffersoni Sloth (Lady Jeffery as we like to call her) by archaeologists and was radio-carbon dated to 12,000-14,000 years old. She was about the size of a large grizzly bear and was a browsing animal of the Pleistocene taiga/tundra environment.
Please note: This story was originally published in the Comet Magazine in June of 2022. Check out more stories like these in the Comet Magazine.
Interested in keeping a photo copy of these collection items? Learn more about our photo archives and request your own copy below.