Calico Early Man Site interesting place to see excavations, artifacts

Visitors to the Calico Early Man Archaeological Site near Barstow, Calif., need to use their imaginations to understand what may have happened there between 135,000 and 200,000 years ago. Instead of the sun-scorched Mojave Desert of today, they must visualize a landscape with lush plains teeming with game bordering ancient Lake Manix, fish-filled and attractive to waterfowl. It would have been attractive to humans living off the bounty of the land, as well.

The Calico Early Man Site lies a couple of miles west of Interstate 15 about 160 miles south of Las Vegas. Exit the freeway at the Minneola off-ramp abut 15 miles north of Barstow. Follow the signs to the site at the end of a gravel road where there is a graded parking lot and rest rooms. A small project building serves as visitor center, museum display room and tour assembly point.

Administered by the Bureau of Land Management, the Calico Early Man Site remains open five days a week all year. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays, the site welcomes visitors on Wednesdays from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m., and on Thursdays through Sundays from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. A site manager takes visitors on tours Wednesdays at 1:30 and 3:30 p.m., and Thursdays through Sundays at 9:30 and 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 and 3:30 p.m. Fees are $5 for the first one or two adults and $2.50 each for each additional adult. Seniors 62 and older pay $2. Tours for children aged 12 and younger cost $1. Call (760) 218-0827 for more details.

Many scientists working at the site over the decades since its discovery by amateur archaeologists in 1942 believe the spot attracted hunters and became a work site for flint knappers. These ancient craftsmen created useful objects out of stones washed from the mountains toward the lake. If it can be substantiated by enough evidence, the site would be the earliest in the Western Hemisphere.

Continuing work at the site adds to the evidence. At least 12,000 artifacts have been unearthed there, fashioned primarily from agate, chalcedony and jasper. Visitors on guided tours often see excavations in progress. Deep in the solidified sediment of that ancient alluvial fan, archaeologists and volunteers have uncovered thousands of stones with enough shaping to be possible tools and the thin stone flakes associated with other ancient work sites.

The problem with this site is its date, established by various scientific dating methods, which is improbably early, according to dissenting experts. They also note that to date, no human remains have been found at the site, that is, no burials, bones or fossilized excrement. If ancient man truly worked at the site and hunted and fished nearby, he arrived a couple of hundred thousand years too early, according to commonly held theories of the peopling of the Americas from the Alaskan-Siberian land bridge.

Ruth Dee Simpson, San Bernardino County archaeologist, brought samples of the site's artifacts to London in the late 1950s to show them to archaeologist Louis S. B. Leakey, famous for his early man discoveries in Africa's Olduvai Gorge. Leakey arranged financing with the National Geographic Society, visited the Calico site in 1964 and became project director until his death in 1972. Involved until her death in 2000, Simpson spent decades at the site.

When you register at the visitor center, tour the artifact exhibits displayed there. Still more may be seen at the Mojave River Valley Museum in Barstow, a free facility open daily from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Before taking your tour, listen to the guide's expert introduction to the site. The trail to the main excavation area begins at the edge of the parking lot. Sometimes steep, the pathway climbs along the edge of a hill to the excavation site near the top. Wear sturdy footwear, protect your head and face with a hat, use sunblock and carry water. Count on spending an hour on the guided tour.

There will be shade only in the excavation area, where a roof protects the site from erosion. You may see excavation under way on your visit. Working their way down through the sediments, archaeological team members remove rock and sand with paintbrushes and dental picks, hoping still for evidence that proves beyond doubt the importance of the Calico Early Man Site.

Margo Bartlett Pesek's column appears on Sundays.