The Ice Age Site in Alaska That's Still Giving Up Treasures Today

Somewhere in Alaska, the Ice Age never really ended.

That might sound dramatic, but when you're holding a piece of woolly mammoth tusk that's been locked in permafrost for 10,000 to 40,000 years — as carbon dating of Boneyard samples confirms — it's hard not to feel the weight of deep time.

Meet Boneyard Alaska

The fossil ivory we use at Ice Age Treasures comes from a private site in Alaska operated by my brother, John Reeves, of The Boneyard Alaska. It's not a mine in the traditional sense — it's more like a slow, careful excavation of what the Ice Age left behind. Permafrost is an incredible preservative, and the fossils that emerge from it are often in remarkable condition.

What comes out of the ground

Woolly mammoth tusks and teeth are the stars of the show, but the site is actually a patented gold claim that my brother and his family are preserving for the incredible abundance of mammoth tusk and bone, teeth, and other Ice Age material they have discovered. Pleistocene era species such as Steppe Bison, Giant Short Faced Bear, Dire wolves and the Haringtonhippus, an extinct genus of equine from the Pleistocene have been discovered along with Woolly Mammoth. Each piece we collect is unique — shaped by thousands of years underground, stained by minerals, and carrying a patina that no artist could replicate.

From Alaska to your hands

Knife handles, jewelry, arrowheads, carved collectibles — every piece starts with that same ancient material and gets shaped into something you can actually hold, wear, or display.

There's something quietly profound about that. A woolly mammoth walked the earth during the last Ice Age. Thousands of years later, a piece of that animal becomes a knife handle or a pendant that someone carries with them every day.

Why I do this

For one other human on earth to purchase and enjoy what I have made gives me my greatest pleasure and incentive to keep creating. I'm sharing a piece of myself, our earth's natural history, something I hope can be passed down for generations. The Boneyard Alaska makes that possible, and I'm grateful for every piece that thaws into our modern time so we can all carry a piece of those magnificent Ice Age animals forward.

Want to see what's currently available? Browse our collection and find your own piece of the Ice Age.