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Union Oiler Kelley Walker, an archeologist, and H. C. Smith who engineered the earth-moving, trudge back from an inspection tour of the Tule Springs earthmoving project. Scientists perch like birds while one leans down to study charcoal deposit— remains of firepit where man cooked centuries ago. Guardol, and Unoba grease. ( Kelley Walker, supervisor of asphalt and contractor sales out of Los Angeles, and C. S. Palmer, sales manager for Las Vegas, are the Company’s two contact m en.) What are the chances of finding human fossils at Tule Springs? Very slight. The earth wasn’t heavily popu­lated 28,000 years ago. The people were nomadic hunt- 0j*§ _ and may have treated their dead as casually as do some of today’s primitive tribes. “W e’ll be extremely fortunate if we find human fos­sils,” Shutler says. “It’s a remote possibility but not an impossibility.” Whether or not such direct evidence is found, the Tule Springs project is bound to advance our knowledge of man and his evolution at a critical time. Miss Simpson sounds a gloomy note about the future of archeological exploration in the western United States. “This may be the last generation to be able to derive information from these depositories of the past,” she says. “Freeways, expanding cities, the rush of people into our states . . .s o much of the country is being cut up or covered! Inevitably we will lose part of our heritage.” But now, the same earthmovers that are changing the face of the West to make room for the homes and highways of today’s people, are working to preserve part of that heritage. If all goes well, they will uncover the homes and “highways” of yesterdays people. Perhaps even the mortal remains of ancient man himself. 5