In May 2000 workers on a road project in Gray, Tennessee, encountered soil problems. Harry Moore, a UT masters’ degree holder in geology and the manager of the Tennessee Department of Transportation’s Geotechnical Engineering Office in Knoxville, sent office geologist Larry Bolt to the site on May 17. Bolt reported findings that suggested soils from the Pleistocene Epoch (1.8 million years ago to about ten thousand years ago, commonly known as the Ice Age). On May 31, 2000, Bolt returned to Gray, accompanied by colleagues, to observe the undercutting the contractor was to employ in stabilizing the roadway. Martin Kohl and Larry Bolt simultaneously discovered segments of bone with teeth in excavation piles about 15 feet apart.
A few days later, Kohl showed some of the bone fragments and teeth to Dr. Paul Parmalee, a distinguished paleontologist and archaeologist, who was the director emeritus of UT’s Frank H. McClung Museum. Parmalee first identified the bones as those of a tapir. The UT Geology and Anthropology Departments worked with TDOT to evaluate the significance of the site and began mapping and systematic planning for removal of artifacts from a site, which it soon became clear, was far older than originally thought—dating to the Miocene period (23.03-5.33 million years ago). Dr. Walter Klippel, Dr. Parmalee, Dr. Don Byerly, and graduate student Marta Adams worked at the site, and on June 27, discovered fossilized skeletal material of an elephant and an alligator skull.
On July 13 a meeting was held to determine which of three possible alternatives to moving the roadway should be recommended to the governor, and a representative from East Tennessee State University attended. Governor Sundquist accepted the recommendation that the roadbed be moved to bypass the site and responded to lobbying by designating ETSU to manage the site, providing money for that university to hire a paleontologist, and providing most of the money for a museum/laboratory to be operated by ETSU. Moving the road cost $1.8 million, and the ETSU museum received $10 million from the State.