The Superior Express -

A Jewell County group working to boost the county's tourism draw is one of four Kansas groups to receive a $10,000 marketing grant. Projects in Sedgwick, Marshall and Atchison counties received similar $10,000 grants. The smallest of the 40 grants announced this week was $960 awarded the Marquette Chamber of Commerce in McPherson County.

A total of $117,780 was awarded in the 2023 Tourism Marketing Grant Awards Program. The grants will provide funding for 22 projects to enhance and expand advertising efforts to attract new visitors to Kansas and to destinations within the state.

The grants were awarded by Kansas Tourism, a division of the Kansas Department of Commerce. They are designed to assist local tourism organizations or attractions in new or first-time innovative marketing initiatives.

Supporting tourist attractions and local events across the state makes good business sense according to David Toland, the state's lieutenant governor and secretary of commerce. "Kansas benefits greatly from the $11.2 billion in total economic impact that travel and tourism generates annually and the department of commerce will continue providing marketing assistance that helps increase that impact."

Bridgette Jobe, the Kansas Tourism director, said, increasing visitation to these destinations boosts local economies in a variety of ways.

Recently Jewell County Community Development and the Jewell County Historical Society placed three signs near the entrance to the Lovewell Lake Marina store that promote Jewell County as the Mammoth Capital of the Great Plains.

Research has documented the presence of seven mammoths at Lovewell Reservoir and the remains of more have been found in other locations throughout the county.

The first mammoth at Lovewell Reservoir was discovered in 1969 when a visitor to the lake found a mammoth skull eroding on a beach. At the Lovewell Mammoth II site, a total of 695 pieces of mammoth bones were initially recovered with several hundred additional pieces recovered from water screening during the 1991, 2002, 2004 and 2014 excavations.

A mammoth tusk found by a fisherman at the lake in the 1970s along with other mastodon remains is now on display at the Jewell County Historical Museum in Mankato.

The discoveries in Jewell County have changed how scientists view the mammoths.

It was first thought the giant animals roamed Kansas before the arrival of humans, but a pit discovered at Lovewell Lake revealed evidence showing humans hunted, killed and dressed the animals.

A scholarly article called "The age and taphonomy of mammoths at Lovewell Reservoir, Jewell County, Kansas, USA" was printed in a 2007 issue of Quaternary International. That report states "The density of single adult mammoth death sites (at Lovewell) is uncommon elsewhere on the central Great Plans of North America.