See ancient fossils in East Tennessee

Gray, Tenn. — When highway construction workers shoveled into a dark, mucky deposit amid the red clay fields of East Tennessee, they knew they’d unearthed something unusual.

Maybe not unusual enough to stop the expansion of the state highway that winds just past the discovery but worth calling in specialists to evaluate.

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SCOTT EVANS / Gray Fossil Museum

Visitors tour the exhibit hall at the Gray Fossil Museum, which displays finds from ongoing digs and offers interactive exhibits.

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LARRY D. SMITH / East Tennessee State

University Photographic Lab The bones of a saber-toothed cat are among the finds from the 5-acre, 100-foot-deep Gray Fossil Site, the largest Miocene-era discovery in the eastern U.S.

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The specialists dug up an alligator skull. In the southern Appalachians. And the new road took a detour.

What the experts found was evidence of a site estimated to be 4.5 million to 7 million years old, filled with thousands of animal and plant fossils preserved in a series of sinkholes. The Miocene-era fossils included a red panda, only the second found in the United States; a saber-toothed cat; a camel; and a shovel-tusked elephant. The Gray Fossil Site is the largest Miocene discovery in the eastern United States.

The past is never far away in this part of northeast Tennessee, where Daniel Boone blazed a trail that carried hundreds of thousands of settlers into the Western frontier and an annual storytelling festival celebrates generations of folklore and tall tales. The fossil find adds another dimension. It will take about 100 years to excavate the 5-acre site, with its fossil-rich clay deposit that’s 100 feet deep.

A natural history museum that opened in 2007 lets visitors get close to prehistory. Just a tiny portion of the site has been explored, and in warmer months East Tennessee State University paleontology students and staff excavate a pit that’s already produced several rhinoceroses. Visitors can help sift soil for small fossils, a process much like gem mining.

Inside, the museum is filled with interactive exhibits at which younger children can explore a faux fossil pit and older visitors can listen to prehistoric weather and traffic reports from the sinkhole. Casts of the animal finds populate a forest setting. The real bones are stored upstairs, where a guided tour lets visitors peer through windows at workers painstakingly cleaning and piecing together bone fragments and skeletons.

An exhibit that runs Jan. 24-May 17 focuses on extinction, from dinosaurs to currently endangered species, including the tapir. That animal, an ungainly piglike creature with a short trunk for a nose, is still found in Asia and Central and South America. It once roamed extensively over this part of Tennessee; the remains of some 100 tapirs have been dug up at Gray.

The museum was built on top of some of the fossil-rich clay, which was quickly excavated before construction. In the spring, construction starts on a cafe and indoor and outdoor classrooms.

The Gray site is about an hour west of Asheville and just a few miles from Tennessee’s Tri-Cities: Johnson City, Bristol and Kingsport. Other attractions in the region include:

• Rocky Mount Museum, a living history museum in a two-story log home built in the 1770s. The home served as the first capitol of the territory that later became the state of Tennessee. Costumed guides play the roles of the home’s original occupants, William Cobb and his wife, Barsheba, and their relatives. Rocky Mount reopens March 3 after a two-month winter hiatus; the site includes a museum as well as the main house, a kitchen, a weaving cottage and gardens. 200 Hyder Hill Road, Piney Flats, Tenn. $4-$6. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays. 888-538-1791. www.rockymountmuseum.com

• Bristol Motor Speedway holds Winston Cup races in March and August. The first big race weekend of the year is March 20-22, wrapping up with the Food City 500. The Sharpie 500 is Aug. 22; the race, known as the toughest ticket in NASCAR, is already sold out, but seats remain for other races earlier that week. You can tour the Speedway and Dragway daily, except during major events. Reservations required for tours May through August. 151 Speedway Blvd., Bristol, Tenn. $3-$5 for tours. 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays; noon-4 p.m. Sundays. 423-989-6960 for tours; 423-989-6942. www.bristolmotorspeedway.com

• National Storytelling Festival is three days of tale-telling in downtown Jonesborough, Tenn., Oct. 2-4. International Storytelling Center, 116 W. Main St., Jonesborough. 1-800-952-8392. www.storytellingcenter.com

• Hands On! Museum offers permanent exhibits that include a full-size airplane, a water-play dam and other interactive exhibits on music, biology, water and cars, plus traveling exhibits. 315 E. Main St., Johnson City, Tenn. $8. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays; 1-5 p.m. Sundays; open Mondays June-August. 423-434-4263. www.handsonmuseum.org

IF YOU GO

Gray Fossil Site. 1212 Suncrest Drive, Gray, Tenn. $7-$10. 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. 866-202-6223. www.grayfossilmuseum.com

WHERE TO SLEEP

Carnegie Hotel. The century-old hotel, restored in 2000, offers large rooms with a mix of modern and period furniture and a full-service spa. $99-$124. 1286 State of Franklin Road, Johnson City, Tenn. 1-866-757-8277. www.carnegiehotel.com

WHERE TO EAT

Ridgewood Barbecue. Enormous hickory-smoked sliced pork sandwiches are the stars in this family-run restaurant open since 1948, but there’s a full menu available as well. Don’t miss the chunky homemade blue cheese dressing, served with celery and carrot sticks and an endless supply of crackers, and the house-made, skin-on fries. $1.45-$17 for sandwiches and entrees. 11 a.m.-7:30 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays; 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. and 4:30-8:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. 900 Elizabethton Highway, Bluff City, Tenn. 423-538-7543.

Scratch Brick Oven Pizza. Delicious pies with inventive toppings, prepared in a wood-fired brick oven. The downside: The quirky restaurant is open only Fridays-Sundays, with a limited number of tables. A 16-inch pizza is about $16. 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Fridays-Sundays. 100 E. Unaka Ave., Johnson City, Tenn. 423-262-8021. www.scratchbrickoven.com

INFORMATION

Tennessee state tourism guide. www.tnvacation.com

Northeast Tennessee Tourism Association. 1-800-468-6882. www.netta.com