La Brea Tar Pits

Los Angeles, California, United States

Public art

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Listed, not yet checked · Oct 2026

This Big Thing is recorded as still being here.

A tableau of life-size fiberglass mammoths at the Lake Pit of La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, credited to sculptor Howard Ball in 1968. A female mammoth sinks into the asphalt while her mate and offspring look on.

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La Brea Tar Pits

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Site-level location · 34.0637° N, 118.3592° W

FIELD GUIDE

The story

A mother mammoth sinks into a lake of bubbling asphalt in the middle of Los Angeles while her mate and offspring look on, and she has been doing it since the 1960s. The scene is at the Lake Pit in Hancock Park on Wilshire Boulevard. The park's own map describes the Lake Pit as its biggest and still-bubbling asphalt seep, with life-size fiberglass statues of mammoths and an American mastodon.

A 2022 paper in Palaeo-Electronica credits the tableau to the sculptor Howard Ball in 1968 and calls it one of the most iconic pieces of public art in Los Angeles. It shows a female Columbian mammoth sinking into the asphalt while her worried mate and offspring look on. The mastodon, also by Ball, stands at the west end of the Lake Pit. A Park La Brea News photograph from 26 January 1967 shows the installation, and Beverly Press recalled that the statue was nicknamed 'old grayback'.

The statues have been repaired over the years. In 2014 NBC Los Angeles reported repair work on the statues, with tails redone, cracks filled, new paint and a restored anchor on the female, and the mother back in her spot at the east end of the largest pit. In 2019 three architecture firms proposed redesigns of the park, and one would have moved the mammoth into a museum gallery. In January 2020 Beverly Press said plans called for the family to remain on site.

In October 2026 the museum's website said its building was closed for a two-year reimagining, with areas of Hancock Park still accessible.

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WHAT TO EXPECT

Statues in the Lake Pit at the La Brea Tar Pits, Hancock Park, Los Angeles. In October 2026 the museum said its building was closed for renovation while many outdoor areas of Hancock Park remained open; the Lake Pit is described on the park's map as still bubbling.

ACCESS

Lake Pit, La Brea Tar Pits, 5801 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles. The museum building is closed for renovation, while many outdoor areas of Hancock Park remain open, according to the museum's website in October 2026.

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