The NY Times and NY Post recently reported on treasure hunters diving in the cold waters of the East River searching for prehistoric woolly mammoth tusks allegedly lying on the bottom of the East River, near East 65th street, across from Roosevelt Island.

According to a January 15 NY Post article:

…Expeditions on the East River started after Alaskan gold miner and fossil enthusiast John Reeves appeared Dec. 30 on the popular podcast and citied a draft of a report by a former American Museum of Natural History worker referencing fossils and bones dumped in the river in the 1940s….

The NY Times added in a January 27 article that the treasure hunters:

… were drawn to their spot, near East 65th Street, not by scientific data or the boats keen instruments, but by a massively popular podcast: The Joe Rogan Experience. In a recent interview on that show, which has an estimated audience of 11 million listeners per episode on Spotify, a guest from Alaska presented an explosive discovery: There are tens of thousands of priceless woolly mammoth tusks lying on the river floor….

Roosevelt Island Historical Society President Judy Berdy notes:

Recently a story has been circulating about a boatload of pre-historic bones being lost in the East River around 65th Street in 1940. The bones were supposedly on their way from Alaska to the American Museum of Natural History. To date no evidence of the shipment has been located.

Here’s more on the East River search for prehistoric Woolly Mammoth bones.