This week, as Oglethorpe students were digging beds for a community garden, a student’s shovel hit what was, at first, believed to be a rock. However, upon removal and closer examination, it was revealed to be a bone. And, not just any bone, a colossal ELEPHANT bone!

Yes, students have found the remains of the infamous elephant of Oglethorpe legend. For those who have not heard the story, in November 1941, the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus was performing in Atlanta. Sadly,18 circus elephants were poisoned by what was later determined to be arsenic. An ingenious professor in the Oglethorpe medical school,  Dr. Barnard, had one of the elephants hauled to campus and placed behind Lowry Hall, where Philip Weltner Library is located, for use in his comparative anatomy class. As the animal began to decay, a hole was dug next to the body and buried. When they were finished, no one thought to document where, exactly, the beast had been buried. So, for 74 years, the animal’s bones had stayed hidden!

So, now we’ve got an elephant in the room. April Fools! While it is true that there was, in fact, an elephant dissected and buried on campus, the bones have yet to be uncovered. The elephant remains remain hidden … for now.