Ice Age Alaska: A Brief History of the Permafrost and What's Preserved in It

Alaska is one of the few places on earth where the Ice Age never fully let go. Beneath the surface of much of the state lies permafrost — ground that has remained frozen, in some places, for tens of thousands of years. It is one of the most remarkable natural archives on the planet, and it is the reason that pieces like the ones I work with at Ice Age Treasures exist at all.

What Is Permafrost?

Permafrost is defined as ground that stays at or below 0°C (32°F) for at least two consecutive years. In Alaska, it underlies roughly 80% of the interior and can extend hundreds of feet deep. The upper layer — called the active layer — thaws and refreezes seasonally. But below that, the ground has been locked in cold for millennia.

This deep freeze is not uniform. It varies by depth, soil composition, and location. But where it is stable and ancient, it functions as a natural preservation vault unlike anything else on earth.

The World It Preserved

During the last Ice Age — roughly 110,000 to 10,000 years ago — Alaska was part of a vast, cold grassland ecosystem called the mammoth steppe, or Beringia. This landscape connected Alaska to Siberia across what is now the Bering Sea (sea levels were significantly lower then, exposing a land bridge hundreds of miles wide). It was not a barren tundra. It was a productive, grass-dominated ecosystem that supported enormous herds of large animals.

Woolly mammoths were the iconic residents, but they shared the landscape with woolly rhinoceroses, ancient bison (Bison priscus), Pleistocene horses, cave lions, short-faced bears, and early humans who crossed into North America via that same land bridge. When these animals died, many were buried in sediment and frozen — sometimes quickly enough to preserve not just bone and ivory, but soft tissue, hair, and stomach contents.

How Fossils Surface

Permafrost is not static. Erosion, river cutting, and seasonal thaw cycles constantly expose new material. In Alaska's interior, riverbanks and creek beds are among the most productive fossil sites — water does the slow work of cutting through frozen ground and revealing what lies beneath. Private landowners and dedicated fossil hunters like the Reeves family at The Boneyard Alaska spend years learning their land, watching erosion patterns, and carefully recovering what surfaces. It is patient, physical work, and it requires a deep knowledge of the terrain.

The Reeves family — my brother John and our family — are the ones who discover and gather all of the fossil materials I work with. Their private site in Alaska has yielded extraordinary specimens, and their stewardship of that land in interior AK  is what makes Boneyard ethically sourced fossil ivory available at all in the USA,

What the Permafrost Gives Us

The preservation quality of Alaskan permafrost fossils is genuinely remarkable. Mammoth ivory recovered from these deposits can retain its original structure, color gradation, and even the fine grain that makes it workable for carving. Some pieces show the natural patina of deep time — creams, tans, and warm browns that no modern material can replicate. Others are more pristine. Each piece is different, because each animal was different, and each burial was different.

This variability is part of what makes working with fossil ivory so compelling. I am not working with a standardized material. I am working with something that has its own history, its own character, and its own story, and is very difficult to find under the eons of overburden — one that began long before I picked up a carving tool.

A Living Archive

The Bone hunters at the Boneyard find and gather material which has been stable for thousands of years is now exposed to conditions it was never meant to face. There is urgency, in some ways, to the work of responsible fossil recovery. What the permafrost has preserved for tens of thousands of years will not wait indefinitely once it begins to thaw. It can take a long time for ivory to dry, over a couple years in many cases.

Every piece I carve carries that context with it. The permafrost gave it to us. It is worth treating it accordingly.