{"id":258,"date":"2022-08-21T23:41:42","date_gmt":"2022-08-21T23:41:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/parmenidean.is\/wp\/?p=258"},"modified":"2026-03-02T17:47:53","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T17:47:53","slug":"the-hava-supai-pictograph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/parmenidean.is\/wp\/?p=258","title":{"rendered":"The Hava Supai Pictograph"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Photograph of Hava Supai Pictograph, followed by an illustration of Diplodocus<\/em>. Both images were included in the publication of Discoveries Relating to Prehistoric Man<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The fact that some prehistoric man made a pictograph of a dinosaur on the walls of this canyon upsets completely all of our theories regarding the antiquity of man. Facts are stubborn and immutable things. If theories do not square with the facts then the theories must change, the facts remain.<\/p>\n– Samuel Hubbard, Discoveries Relating to Prehistoric Man<\/em> (5). As quoted in Cowboys & Saurians: Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Beasts as Seen by the Pioneers<\/em> by John Lemay (339).<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Located in remote and arid Northern Arizona near the oasis of Havasu Falls, this image and the canyon that bore it were discovered by a young Los Angeles prospector named E.L. Doheny and his party of several men, who were the first White men to visit this place. There were many hardships which comprised the original expedition; the most tragic of these was death of one of the party, a sailor named Mooney, who plummeted to his doom while trying to descend a waterfall which was posthumously named in his honor. Despite the risks involved with mounting an expedition to this place, several were undertaken before the much more conclusive 1924 expedition, which archaeologist Samuel Hubbard refers to in Discoveries Relating to Prehistoric Man<\/em>, his aforementioned report:<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This canyon was first visited by the writer in November, 1894, and in February and March, 1895. Most of the matters of prehistoric interest described in this pamphlet, were observed at that time but their true significance was not fully recognized. Endeavors were made at various times to interest scientists in this discovery, but without avail.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Hubbard would once again visit the canyon in 1924 as the leader of the “Doheny Expedition”, which was sponsored by the prospector, now a major oil tycoon, who was drawn back to that place by the memory of those mysterious pictographs he had witnessed in his youth. Notably, a paleontologist was among the members of this expedition, alongside a sculptor and even a photographer, alongside two assistants and a guide. I list their names here as follows, for posterity’s sake: <\/p>\n\n\n\n