CHAPTER
2
MAN BEFORE HISTORY
H
u m a n beings have walked the m o u n t a i n s and deserts, the shores and fens of earth for thousands if not millions of years. We have no exact figures concerning the length of human habitation in what is Box Elder County, but we have evidence of h u m a n occupation going back several thousand years. Men, women, and children of whom we have scant record lived and died in the mountains, valleys, caves, and on the riverbanks of the area for generations. Our ignorance of the prehistoric inhabitants of Box Elder, except for the detritus they left, along with their mortal remains and vestiges of their habitations, is almost all-encompassing. We know nothing of their thought, religion, hopes and dreams, and plans. We can understand these cultures, totally removed from our own in time, space, and cosmos, only on their own terms. We can only describe the bits and pieces we find left behind. Archaeologist David Madsen explains that prehistoric societies are usually seen " . . . in terms of extremes; either as ignorant savages blundering their way through life or as primitive spiritualists living in harmony with nature and the world around them. But the[y] . . .
