• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

5.4.5 Sandia Cave, New Mexico (Middle Pleistocene)

In 1975, quite by accident, Virginia-Steen McIntyre learned of the existence of another site with an impossibly early date for stone tools in North America— Sandia Cave, New Mexico, U.S.A., where the implements, of advanced type (Folsom points), were discovered beneath a layer of stalagmite considered to be 250,000 years old. One such tool is shown in Figure 5.11.

In a letter to Henry P. Schwartz, the Canadian geologist who had dated the stalagmite, Virginia Steen-McIntyre wrote (July 10, 1976): “For the life of me, I can’t remember if it was you or one of your colleagues I talked to at the 1975 Penrose Conference (Mammoth Lakes, California). The fellow I spoke to as we waited in line for lunch mentioned a uranium series date on the stalagmite layer above artifacts at Sandia Cave that was very upsetting to him—it disagreed violently with the commonly held hypothesis for the date of entry of man into the New World. When he mentioned a date of a quarter million years or thereabouts, I nearly dropped my tray. Not so much in shock at the age, but that this date agreed so well with dates we have on a controversial Early Man site in Central Mexico. . . . Needless to say, I’d be interested to learn more about your date and your feelings about it!” According to Steen-McIntyre, she did not receive an answer to this letter.

After writing to the chief archeological investigator at the Sandia site for information about the dating, Steen-McIntyre received this reply (July 2, 1976): “I hope you don’t use this ‘can of worms’ to prove anything until after we have had a chance to evaluate it.”

Figure 5.11. A Folsom blade embedded in the lower surface of a travertine crust from Sandia Cave, New Mexico (Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, vol. 99, no. 23, plate 7). The layer of travertine is said to be 250,000 years old.

Four years later, Virginia Steen-McIntyre wrote (February 8, 1980) in a letter to Steve Porter, editor of Quaternary Research: “Did you know they now have a 250,000 year date on the stalagmite layer in Sandia Cave, N.M., the one that sealed off sediments that contained leaf-shaped points and fire hearths? I’ve been trying to get more information out of Vance Haynes, who collected the samples, and Dr. Schwarz at McMaster [University], who ran the date, but so far no luck.”

Steen-McIntyre sent us some reports and photos of the Sandia artifacts and said in an accompanying note: “Talk about a study in frustration! Read the enclosed, then look at that picture of the ‘folsom’ blade imbedded in the travertine crust (stalagmite layer, 250,000 years). The geochemists are sure of their date (oral communication, GSA meeting, 1978), but archaeologists have convinced them the artifacts and charcoal lenses beneath the travertine are the result of rodent activity. The archaeologists who have seen the evidence are sure of the presence of artifacts beneath the crust, but believe the date is wrong! But what about the artifacts cemented in the crust?”

The Sandia Cave discoveries, along with the finds made at Hueyatlaco (Section 5.4.4), Calico (Section 3.8.3), and Toca da Esperança (Section 3.8.4), strongly suggest a human presence over 200,000 years ago in the Americas. This challenges not only the orthodox time estimate for the entry of Homo sapiens into North America (12,000 years ago) but also the whole picture of human evolution, which has Homo sapiens arising from Homo erectus in Africa about 100,000 years ago.

5.5 Neolithic Tools From The Tertiary Auriferous Gravels Of California

In 1849, gold was discovered in the gravels of ancient riverbeds on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in central California, drawing hordes of rowdy adventurers to places like Brandy City, Last Chance, Lost Camp, You Bet, and Poker Flat. At first, solitary miners panned for flakes and nuggets in the gravels that had found their way into the present stream beds. But soon gold-mining companies brought more extensive resources into play,