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About Illinois Valley news. (Cave City, Oregon) 1937-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 8, 2014)
Page A-10 Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2014 Weather Watch Pre-historic beast created by resident fascinated by Ice Age By Jenna Larkin IVN Contributing Writer Cave Junction Thursday, Jan 9 Chance of Rain High -- 42 Low -- 39 Friday, Jan 10 Chance of Rain High -- 50 Low -- 41 T ry r osie ’ s Pizza B Y - Saturday, Jan 11 Rain High -- 47 Low -- 34 Sunday, Jan 12 Chance of Rain High -- 48 Low -- 30 Monday, Jan 13 T HE -S LICE Clear High -- 52 Low -- 32 Tuesday, Jan 14 Today Clear High -- 55 Low -- 32 Wednesday, Jan 15 415-0517 OPEN: Partly Cloudy High -- 53 Low -- 32 Following are the high & low temperatures, and rainfall recorded at The End of the Road in O’Brien by Cheryl & Harry Johnson: MON, THURS & FRI aT C hevron in CJ 11 AM - 7 PM SATURDAYS aT G ranTs P ass G rowers M arkeT Dec High Low 27 28 29 30 31 1 2 36.9 41.4 40.8 43.7 46.8 43.7 43.9 28.0 29.5 25.9 25.3 28.0 24.8 25.5 Dan Beal has always been interested in the Pleistocene era (better known as the last Ice Age), which dates back to about 1,808,000 to 11,550 years. Beal was mostly interested in the Megaloceros species but the breed that stuck out the most for Beal was the Gi- ganteus ferrous, which is better known as the Irish Elk. Though the Irish Elk is not considered Irish or related to the elk spe- cies, the origins of how it got its current name is not well known. The more Beal studied the prehistor- ic deer, the more he became interested in it. In January of this year, Beal decided to construct an exact replica of the Irish Elk. He began his journey by researching the prehistoric beast online, going to history museum’s websites and learning as much about it as he could. Beal said the hard- est part about his research was actually finding correct information on the deer’s measurements. Almost every website he searched listed approximately how tall it could grow and the width of the antlers, but Beal was not able to find exact infor- mation. While walking along a stretch of the river one afternoon he came across an old deer carcass. Knowing that the Irish Elk was a member of the deer family, he took the carcass home, cleaned it and used the bones as an example for his sculpture. Beal also had several pictures from the history museum websites he visited dur- ing his research that he also used to help him create his sculpture. His next step was to figure out what medium he would use to replicate the deer. Beal first tried chainsaw carving but some pieces had to be glued and bolted together, eventually the carving became too heavy and cracked. The next experi- ment was to create the animal from clay, using wire as the skeleton. While working on the clay sculpture he realized that the skeleton was the main focus of most of the research that Beal had found. So, once again starting over, Beal taught himself how to weld in order to make a sculpture created from metal. With his research complete and the medium known, Beal set out to create an exact duplication of the pre-historic animal that sparked his curiosity. The process, though, was slow going, due to many factors. Beal is on a set income and had to purchase supplies and learn as he went. The process took ten months from start to finish. The finished product, how- ever, replicates the skeleton of an Irish Elk, down to the last knuckle bone and shape of the teeth. Beal’s sculpture stands seven feet tall at the shoulders and the antlers are ten feet across. Not much is known about the Irish Elk, but when the huge Giganteus ferrous roamed the Earth, it stood seven feet tall at the shoulders and the antlers could span up to 13 feet, with one antler reaching 12 feet from tip to tip. The Irish Elk could weigh as much as 1,500 pounds. Much of the remains found in museums of the large deer have been mostly found all across Eurasia, from Ireland to parts of Asia even Africa, leading scientists to be- lieve the European Elk or moose are close descendants of it. Beal is a retired aerospace engineer, which helped him work out all the com- plexities of creating such a huge beast and undertaking such an enormous task. “It partly helped me in putting the skeleton together, it was very complex,” said Beal of his momentous mission. When asked if he would create more sculptures of animals, he replied that he would like to build more animals from the same time period but focus on pre-historic animals that roamed locally, another rea- son why he chose the Irish Elk. Beal is now working on how to make his sculp- ture accessible to the public along with future sculptures. The Irish Elk sculpture is located in Kerby across from Holton Creek Road. Dec Rain: 1.62” YTD Rain: 11.36” All you cAn eAt breAkfAst or order off the menu At the I.V. GrAnGe F irst three s undays oF the month From 8 a . m . to 12 noon . 3763 Holland Loop 541-592-3368 Grange or 541-592-4478 Kerby resident, Dan Beal’s Irish Elk All repAirs done on site! 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