This Week on the Central Coast…
Monterey Beer Fest is coming up, Santa Cruz wants to be the cleanest city, and a woman found a super-rare mastodon tooth.
Monterey
Monterey Beer Festival ticket giveaway
The 20th Annual Monterey Beer Festival will be held at the fairground on July 8th and will start at 12:30pm and end at 4pm. “In addition to tasting an array of outstanding beer and food, the Monterey Beer Festival will feature live entertainment and a DJ”.
The contest drawing will conclude on June 29. Winners will be notified by email and must respond in order to win.
Santa Cruz
Mastodon tooth found on the beach
Last week, a woman walking on Rio Del Mar State Beach posted a picture on Facebook of what looked like a strange-looking chunk of petrified wood. Unbeknownst to her, she had left behind the molar of a Pacific Mastodon. Wayne Thompson, a local paleontologist, recognized the item and immediately ran off to the beach to find it. However, he came up empty. He turned to social media to ask for the fossil to be brought in to the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History and, with some luck, a local runner brought it in.
This is only the third specimen of the species that has been found in Santa Cruz. “Every specimen we have is an additional piece of the puzzle to figure out what life was like here in Santa Cruz,” (Liz) Broughton (manager of the museum) said. “Any bit of data we can eke up will contribute knowledge of mastodons on the Central Coast and how the flora and fauna has changed over time.” A team will be tasked with analyzing the tooth and readying it for display in the museum. It is expected to be viewable within a year. The museum also has a juvenile mastodon skull already on display.
A team will be tasked with analyzing the tooth and readying it for display in the museum. It is expected to be viewable within a year. The museum also has a juvenile mastodon skull already on display.
You can see a list of current exhibits, as well as some virtual exhibits, at the museum’s website.
Santa Cruz wants to be the cleanest city in the state.
A group of elected officials, local organizations, and citizens in Santa Cruz started a campaign to become the cleanest city in California. The group named themselves The Trash Talkers and will start by picking up “trash at watersheds, beaches, transportation corridors agriculture land and abandoned encampments.” The group has the support of some statewide agencies as well, such as Caltrans, CHP, and the Department of Fish and Wildlife.