I spent many hours at Rabbit Springs. It was only about 2 miles up the road from my house and I could get there easy. I noticed spots where there were lots of chips off of arrowheads, whole piles. Sometimes I found nearly completed arrowheads but mostly chips from tool, spear and arrowhead making. I also found pottery shards and could tell where fires had been.
My parents loved to load up the pick-up truck and explore our desert. We came across so many amazing things. Once I remember we found a well that had been dug in the middle of the desert. In the rocks surrounding it we found a cave full of petroglyphs. On several other occasions we found evidence of native camps. It just seemed normal to us.
I left Lucerne Valley after high school and began my education. I moved to Idaho where I went to college and obtained my undergraduate degree in anthropology. I wanted to go on and get my doctorate but fate sent me in another direction: Law School. I spent the next five years in New Orleans going to Tulane University. Every moment I was in the South I was itching to get back to the West.
For the last 20 or so years I have been living in Seattle, raising my family and practicing law. In my spare time I have continued to study. My particular interests have been the origins of humans on this planet. I do not hold to conventional theories. After years of study and forensic analysis I have come to the firm conclusion, along with millions of others, that our origins are entangled with people from what has come to be known as The 12th Planet. And no I am not a nut.
This study has brought me to the firmly held belief that the creation of humankind occurred both in what is known today as Africa and at nearly the same time in South America. From those two southern post humans evolved and spread north.
This is completely at odds with the commonly held belief that humans arrived in North America only recently as the result of migration. Dr. Louis Leakey was on this same track at the end of his career when he made his startling discovery at Calico. He found stone tools that could only be from a period that no humans were thought to be in North America. These stone tools were nearly identical to Paleolithic tools found in sites in Europe and Asia, the stone-age. Dr. Leakey proved that the tools were here but his life was not long enough for him to actually find the "Lucy" of North America. Finding the North American Lucy, or clear evidence of the culture that made the stone tools is my life's goal. Dr. Leakey did not have Google Earth or GPS; we do. In pouring over maps and researching endlessly I have developed several theories as to where these sites might be.
Later this summer I will be leading a team in initial survey of the sites we currently believe are most likely to hold such artifacts. I intend to return again and again until I've found the evidence. I have no doubt it is there, but the Mojave is a vast and unforgiving place and others have tried and failed. I think that growing up there helps me. I can see and feel the desert in a way that is hard to explain.
So follow my adventure. Comment if you will. I am especially wanting to hear from others that have or still do live in the area. What do they remember seeing? Caves, springs, possible sites? The Internet is full of information but much of it is unreliable. I am hoping that those of us lucky enough to have lived in the valley of such understated beauty will share our information. With that help I know I can find the evidence and turn "conventional wisdom" on its head.
