The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WAITSBURG - In the arid summer back country of the Blue Mountains, Gary Lommasson had come across bones before - animal bones parching in the sun.

As an elk hunter, Lommasson often hikes deep into the steep and rugged terrain of the Umatilla National Forest in search of a prized bull, which he hunts with a special tag using bow and arrow.

But he knew what he saw during an elk scouting trip in the Deduct Pond area off Tiger Canyon on the morning of July 22 was different, very different.

At the base of a spruce on the edge of a clearing, Lommasson almost stumbled onto the yellow-brown crown of a...