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This is Page 2 of the February Issue of 1996

It's a good thing Columbus didn't know that.  He sure would have been disappointed to find out his ancient cousins had discovered America 10,000 years before he was born.

Everything we know about the Ancient Ones is based on theory.  Believing firmly in theory is like building a house on sand.  Sure as shootin', someday all that sand will blow away and everything comes tumbling down.  In the case of the Ancient Ones, that's exactly what happened in 1926 when someone uncovered some bison bones in New Mexico dating back many thousands of years.  Until that day, everyone who was anyone in the field of archaeology was firmly convinced that the Ancient Ones had not been in the area any longer than the cliff dwellings.  Everything they believed came tumbling down when an arrowhead was discovered between the ribs of a bison that had been killed and butchered many thousands of years before humans supposedly existed in New Mexico.

Those of you who followed my directions for Ancient Ones of Comb Ridge which appeared in the September '95 issue of 4Wheel Drive & Sport Utility Magazine, already know where Arch Canyon is located west of Blanding, Utah.  That's where Pass Patrol's 4x4 Travel Club met in November to begin another journey along the trails of the Ancient Ones.  

We had a good fire going that evening.  Temperatures dropped well below the freezing mark.  Gathering firewood along Comb Ridge is forbidden so each of our members had two bundles packed in with the rest of the gear.  We normally expect to burn three bundles of firewood and two 5 pound firelogs per night.

We spent our first day revisiting Arch Canyon.  The canyon walls on both sides of the winding path are dotted with cliff dwellings dating back nearly a thousand years.  They are small and blend in with the rocks making them difficult to see.  The best preserved ones are high up in the cliffs requiring binoculars to pick them out.  Ohters are only a short distance from the canyon floor.  All of them depict a lifestyle too harsh for modern folks to even imagine.