Island 35 Mastodon Island 35 Mastodon The Island 35 Mastodon was discovered on Island No. 35 of the Mississippi River in Tipton County, Tennessee, United States. In 1900, a Pleistocene mastodon skeleton was excavated approximately east of Reverie, Tennessee and southeast of Wilson, Arkansas. In 1957 the site was reported as destroyed. Mastodons are members of the prehistoric, extinct genus "Mammut". They resemble modern elephants. Native to North America, they are said to have lived on the North American continent from almost 4 million years ago, in the Pliocene Epoch, until their eventual disappearance about 10,000 years ago. In 1900, archaeologist James K.
Haverly's United Mastodon Minstrels Haverly's United Mastodon Minstrels Haverly's United Mastodon Minstrels was a blackface minstrel troupe created in 1877, when J. H. Haverly merged four of the companies he owned and managed. Borrowing techniques from showmen like P. T. Barnum, Haverly advertised the Mastodons in broadsides, newspapers, and playbills: "FORTY—COUNT 'EM—40—FORTY—HAVERLY'S UNITED MASTODON MINSTRELS". Another ad read, "Forty is a magical and historical number. In the time of Noah it rained forty days and forty nights. The Children of Israel wandered forty years in the wilderness. Haverly's famous forty are just as important." The Mastodons entered every new town in two columns, spread