Early Man Discovered in Las Vegas

Looking for a Sloth

“Curiously enough, the thing that first aroused my interest in the exploration of Gypsum Cave in Southern Nevada was manure,” explained Mark R. Harrington. That interest would eventually lead to a scientific discovery that would attract worldwide interest.

Located fifteen miles east of Las Vegas, the Gypsum Cave is nestled in the Frenchman Mountain Range. Harrington had been attracted to the cave by “vague rumors that it might hold something of architectural interest.”

On that January day in 1930, when he entered the cave, Harrington found a thick layer of a hard dried fibrous substance. A local man in the area told him that the substance was seaweed left over from a time when the cavern contained a subterranean lake. But Harrington had cleaned out too many stables as a young man not to know that the substance on the floor of the cave was dried feces. The only question that remained in his mind was how it got there.

Mark Raymond Harrington was born on July 6, 1882, on the campus of the University of Michigan. His father, a teacher at the university, was also curator of the school’s museum.

Even from an early age Harrington had a fascination with Native American culture. He would eventually live with many Native American tribes and bands in North…