John Reeves: Alaska gold miner and the largest private landowner in the state; owns the Boneyard, a roughly five-acre site that has produced around 250,000 Ice Age bones including thousands of mammoth tusks.
What this episode covers
John Reeves tells Joe Rogan how he dropped out of the University of Florida on a swimming scholarship, hitchhiked to Alaska, got rich hauling freight for the Alyeska pipeline, then bought the old Alaska Gold Company and became the largest private landowner in the state. On his patented land he stumbled onto a five-acre site he calls the Boneyard, where hydraulic mining of melting permafrost has unearthed close to a quarter-million Ice Age fossils, many of species experts insisted never lived in interior Alaska. He recounts dating the bones to the Younger Dryas extinction window, eating cooked mammoth and other ancient meat, and the American Museum of Natural History dumping a boxcar of his company's bones into New York's East River. He publicly reveals that dump site to start a 'bone rush.' The conversation also wanders into Alaska wildlife, hunting, an Air Force nuclear-detection experiment on his land, and politics.
Recommended on this episode
Boneyard Alaska
“the fellow that made that documentary film he did a beautiful job on that documentary he's won several uh film contests the most recent was that Denali film contest”— John Reeves
Mammoth Mogul carvings
Mammoth Mogul
“I tell people if you ever have a chance to acquire when his carvings just do it you can thank me later”— Joe Rogan
Jack of the Dust resin skulls
Jack of the Dust
“this is from my friend Jack of the Dust those are nice yeah they're pretty cool this is like a resin I just always loved those Day of the Dead skulls”— John Reeves
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
Jeremiah Johnson
Sydney Pollack
“I saw a movie called Jeremiah Johnson I said you know what I won't be a mountain man and then after that I went down to the registrar's office”— John Reeves
Volkswagen van
Volkswagen
“he goes at Volkswagen van oh luckily that was the only vehicle I'd ever turned a wrench on”— John Reeves
Traeger
Traeger
“and you guys cut a chunk off that and threw it in the Traeger not off that one but when he found it”— Joe Rogan
Life Below Zero
National Geographic
“I had that woman what is her name Sue Aikens from Life Below Zero what a wild lady that is”— Joe Rogan
Matt Slingsby smoked salmon
Matt Slingsby (slingsby AK)
“when I go to Florida in the winter time I always bring down some of his smoked salmon he makes his own smoked salmon yes sir and cans it”— John Reeves
Gold Daughters mammoth ivory jewelry
Gold Daughters / Alora Longley
“my daughter makes beautiful jewelry out of her little pieces of ivory that she has she's the Saks Fifth Avenue of mammoth ivory jewelry”— John Reeves
Big reveals from this episode
- After watching Jeremiah Johnson, John dropped out of the University of Florida, wrote 'Gone Fishing' on his dorm door, and hitchhiked to Alaska with a shotgun.
- He and a partner bought a $10,000 air-freight truck and got rich hauling freight for the Alyeska pipeline, clearing roughly $30,000-$40,000 of revenue many mornings.
- Buying the old Alaska Gold Company made him the largest private landowner in Alaska, with 10,000 acres and proven reserves near 800,000 ounces of gold.
- The Boneyard is a single five-acre patch that has yielded close to a quarter-million fossils, including what he jokes is 10,000 dead woolly mammoths' worth of tusks.
- The American Museum of Natural History collected roughly 500,000 of his company's bones (1928-1958), never wrote the required reports, and dumped a boxcar load into the East River.
- John publicly reveals the East River dump site near 65th Street to launch what he calls a 'bone rush.'
- He and about ten friends cooked and ate meat from a roughly 12,000-year-old woolly mammoth found with tissue still on it.
- He let the Air Force run scaled explosions in his permafrost to gauge North Korea's nuclear weapons, earning a thank-you letter and later credit for '14 kills.'
Worth remembering
- Carbon-14 dating costs about $400 per sample; dating his whole collection would run close to $100 million.
- Short-faced bears stood about 12 feet tall when they reared up on their hind legs.
- Mammals heavier than 2.2 pounds empty their bladders in about 20 seconds.
- New Jersey has the highest number of black bears per capita in the United States.
- His self-described most significant find is a blue feather discovered inside a 10-foot mammoth tusk buried under 65 feet of overburden.
- A 150-pound carved blue mammoth tusk by the artist Mammoth Mogul was listed for sale at $675,000.
- A stone skinning tool found on his land is made of rock a geologist traced to Eastern Europe (Bulgaria or Romania).
- The trans-Alaska pipeline was supposed to cost $800 million but ended up costing $9 billion.