GIANT SLOTHS
by Skylaire Alfvegren
Continued...
Harrington, most famous for his Lost City excavations near Overton, was no wide-eyed rube. He “scoffed” at the idea that the remains of two miniature horses, 30 and 15 inches tall, found in Arizona were prehistoric holdovers, rather than degenerate descendants of modern horses, possibly dating from the Coronado party of 1540.
He believed man and sloth coexisted, writing, “Recapitulating our sloth evidence, we may find man certainly associated with [genus] Nothrotherium, apparently with Megalonyx and possibly with Mylodon—three different types—in five and perhaps six parts of North America, namely Nevada...”
A spearhead of “human workmanship” found near the bones of an extinct Proboscidean (elephant or mastodon) in Walker River Canyon left no doubt in the minds of many late 19th century scientists that they were buried at approximately the same time, before the last great rise of Lake Lahontan. Prospectors and some Indians murmured of “giant, slow-moving, red-haired animals seen in the mountain passages within the memory of living men” when Harrington excavated caves made accessible by the rising waters of Lake Mead. One wonders, If these ice age creatures survived that far along--what else might have?
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