The Boneyard Alaska: How 40,000-Year-Old Mammoth Ivory Becomes Wearable Art

Somewhere beneath the permafrost of Alaska, time stopped 40,000 years ago. Woolly mammoths roamed a landscape that looked nothing like the world we know today — a vast, cold steppe teeming with megafauna. And then, slowly, they vanished.

What they left behind is extraordinary.

What Is the Boneyard Alaska?

The Boneyard Alaska is one of the most remarkable sources of Ice Age fossil material in the world. Discovered by my brother John Reeves on a private and patented mining claim over 20 years ago. Typically gold miners would have stripped and mined this area out years ago but John had the foresight to collect and preserve everything he could find. In Goldstream Valley outside of Fairbanks ancient riverbeds and eroding permafrost reveal the bones, tusks, and teeth of woolly mammoths and other Ice Age animals — preserved for tens of thousands of years by the frozen earth.

This isn't excavation in the traditional sense. The land itself gives up these treasures through natural erosion, freeze-thaw cycles, melting permafrost and large water nozzle's called Giants aid in the recovery of identified materials in the "bone zone".

The Boneyard Alaska has even caught the attention of the wider world. Joe Rogan featured the Boneyard on his podcast (episodes #1918, #2080, and #2271), introducing millions of listeners to the incredible story of Ice Age fossil ivory and the people who work with it.

From Tusk Fragment to Fossil Ivory

Woolly mammoth tusks are composed of dentine — the same material as elephant ivory — but they've undergone thousands of years of mineralization. This process gives fossil ivory its distinctive character: rich, layered colors ranging from creamy white to deep caramel, chocolate brown, and even blue-grey. No two pieces are alike. Each fragment carries the unique signature of its time in the earth.

The material I use to create with is from the Boneyard Alaska. Finding and preserving these materials is a passion of mine and I use small broken parts of tusks that cannot be matched or repaired to its original tusk.  It was part of a living animal during the last Ice Age. It survived millennia beneath the permafrost. And now, it's ready for the next chapter of its story.

Why This Material Matters

Working with fossil mammoth ivory isn't just about creating unique collectible objects — though it does that. It's about honoring deep time. Every piece I create carries within it a connection to a world that no longer exists, to an animal that shaped entire ecosystems, and to the land of Alaska that preserved it against all odds. You can sense it when you touch it. People become quiet, gentle and a bit starry-eyed when they see and touch mammoth ivory pieces and tusks. I call it "Mammoth Magic", it is different for everyone but all have common experiences. Sometimes I will have to look and handle a piece for months before I know what I think it should be made into. I really think it shows me what it wants to become more than what I want to make. It's a weird dichotomy but I think it is part of the magic.

No modern animals are harmed. No living elephants. No poaching. The mammoths are long gone, and what remains is a finite, irreplaceable material that deserves to be treated with the utmost respect — both in how it's sourced and in how it's crafted.

That's the promise behind everything I create: a genuine artifact of deep time, ethically sourced from the Boneyard Alaska, shaped by hand into something you can wear, use and admire for generations.

Curious about the ethics of mammoth ivory? Read our full guide: Is Mammoth Ivory Ethical? Everything You Need to Know.