From the Richmond Examiner, 3/12/1866, p. 3, c. 4

THE CURIOUS BONES, on exhibition at the feed store of Robert Turner, Cary street, opposite Castle Thunder, are exciting the speculation of distinguished savans of the surgical and anatomical profession. Gentlemen whose research in such matters is very elaborate, pronounce the bones as part of the hip joints of a mastodon, an animal whose species has been extinct these last two or three thousand years. The supposition that the bones are those of the defunct elephant “Columbus” is exploded by the fact that the elephant died in Indiana, and not in Manchester, which claims the paternity of these bones. The bones, though porous and intersected like a fine honeycomb, weight thirty-eight pounds in their present condition. Ages upon ages must have elapsed since the animal that formed a component part of the stupendous whole gave up the ghost. Where the bones have since reposed, or by what freak of nature thus upheaved, remains for others to say. We have, ourselves, carefully examined the bones, and consider them the embodiment of one of the great wonders of nature, and worthy of the research and investigation of geologists.