John Reeves: Alaska gold miner who owns the Fairbanks 'Boneyard,' a permafrost site that has yielded tens of thousands of Ice Age animal fossils.
What this episode covers
John Reeves rejoins Joe Rogan for a second conversation about his Alaskan permafrost 'Boneyard,' where high-pressure water hoses uncover mammoth tusks, bison, lions, and other Ice Age remains. A major thread is his battle with the American Museum of Natural History, which he says took millions of bones from his property, dumped 50 tons into the East River in the 1940s, and now refuses to return or study the rest. New finds this season include cut 'saw bones' that carbon-dated to only ~190-200 years old, scrambling the site's assumed Ice Age timeline, plus a bone with a carved human face a paleontologist dismissed as natural. The pair range widely across mammoth domestication theories, the younger-dryas impact, denisovans, ancient Egypt, cloning, and a burnt carbon layer 80 feet down that may mark a cataclysmic event. Reeves pushes a political plan to force the bones back to Alaska so the extinction mystery can finally be researched.
Recommended on this episode
War Is a Racket
Smedley Butler
“have you ever read um uh war is a racket by medley Butler”— Joe Rogan
Sugar Tree Cues pool cues
Eric Crisp
“my friend Eric crisp of Sugar Tree Hughes makes cool yeah he's um from Alaska”— Joe Rogan
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
Happy People: A Year in the Taiga
Werner Herzog
“you ever seen that uh wner Herzog documentary uh Happy People life in the tiger”— Joe Rogan
The Men Who Built America
“it was on The Men Who Built America that was on that show”— John Reeves
Jurassic Park
“how far away we from Jurassic Park how how how far away are we”— John Reeves
Burkette Customs 1911 mammoth ivory pistol grips
Burkette Customs
“so he sent me these burkette Customs is the name of his operation check that out”— John Reeves
Brunswick pool tables
Brunswick
“we built our new building we put two 1885 Brunswick pool tables in there got them restored”— John Reeves
iPhone
Apple
“this whole thing is run basically with three people and my iPhone literally”— John Reeves
Lady Fortuna 24k gold bar (Costco)
PAMP Suisse
“they sold a $100 million worth of them in the first quarter what one gold bar swis lady”— Joe Rogan
Big reveals from this episode
- Divers found real mammoth and step-bison bones in NYC's East River, confirming the AMNH dumped 50 tons of Reeves's fossils there in the 1940s.
- Newly found cut 'saw bones' carbon-dated to only ~190-200 years old, upending the site's assumed Ice-Age-only timeline.
- The oldest sampled fossils date to ~40,000 years, hinting there may be evidence of two separate extinction events at the site.
- A bone with a clearly carved symmetrical human face was dismissed by a museum paleontologist as 'natural.'
- A burnt gravel layer on burnt bedrock 80 ft down ('something came in hot') may be evidence of a younger-dryas-style impact.
- Reeves keeps a frozen woolly mammoth brain and samples of his own DNA in permafrost tunnels for possible future cloning.
- Reeves alleges AMNH agents dug indigenous babies from the permafrost and shipped them in pickle jars to Charles Frick.
Worth remembering
- A vintage newsreel documented 12 tons of mammoth ivory unearthed by Alaska gold miners in a single year.
- A step bison head recovered from the site is roughly 38,000 years old.
- Woolly mammoths had six sets of teeth; when the last set wore out, they starved to death.
- Denisovans, a distinct extinct branch of humans, were first identified from a single pinky bone in a Siberian cave.
- Short-faced bears, far larger than polar bears, may have blocked humans from crossing the Bering land bridge.
- Steel magnate Henry Frick hired Pinkerton gunmen and slashed wages, becoming 'the most hated man in America.'
- Costco sold $100 million worth of gold bars in a single quarter, selling out as fast as they were stocked.
- A worked stone skinning tool found at the site was made from stone that originated in Eastern Europe.