Silver Tailings: Slothfulness in Nevada

Did the now-extinct giant ground sloth live alongside native Paiute and Shoshone tribes?

In 1930, archaeologist M. R. Harrington started working in Gypsum Cave, in the Frenchman Mountain Range. He found evidence of mankind along side deposits of petrified feces.

Then he found the skull and bones from a giant ground sloth. Below these, he discovered spear points and evidence of cooking fires.

Harrington noted the bones had been split, showing stone knife cut marks. It left no doubt in his mind that humans had co-existed with prehistoric animals.

Meanwhile many Native legends hint at a giant, slow-moving animal seen wandering through the Sierra Nevada mountain range.