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I read a Louis Lamour interview many years ago, I think it was from Western Horseman but don't hold me to that. In one portion they asked him about a Sackett character of his who kills a woolly mammoth in the 1600s. Lamour recited both indian foldlore that discussed the whoolly mammoth as still being present when the White man arrived, and survivors of a John Hawken's ship. During the reigh of Elizabeth 1st John Hawkens (Hawkins?) traded African slaves for Spainish gold and silver in Mexico. He was attacked by the Spainards and forced to maroon some of his men when he lost several ships. (One survivor who sailed back to England was Francis Drake, who later paid the Spainish back with interest) Hawkens promised that he would return, but some of the men, stranded in Mexico and fearing thet he either could not or would not return, decided to walk out -- to Nova Scotia. Two or three made it after many years. One animal they they decribed as having seen when they made it back to England is clearly a woolly mammoth. Lamour pointed out that they did not make a big deal out of the mammoth because they did not know that it was supposed to be extinct.