# Oldest North American footprints found **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 31, 2025, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-north-american-footprints-found/1019056 "2025-05-31T14:24:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-north-american-footprints-found/1019056/1 "2025-05-31T14:24:49Z")
Researchers in New Mexico have found a series of footprints dating back around 23,000 years; oldest date yet for humans in North America. > **[Archaeologists discovered ancient footprints in New Mexico that rewrite the...](https://www.earth.com/news/archaeologists-discovered-ancient-footprints-that-rewrite-the-story-of-humans-in-america/)** > > Footprints found in New Mexico were dated to roughly 23,000 years old - about 10,000 years before humans were thought to be in America. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-north-american-footprints-found/1019056/2 "2025-05-31T14:27:21Z")
What I find really interesting is just how human the activity was, shown by the footprints. They would have been made along the shore or a lake, by a family party. Adults were walking, kids were running back and forth, at one point an adult, likely a woman, set down a little one to walk on its own. Just an ordinary Sunday walk at the beach. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-north-american-footprints-found/1019056/3 "2025-05-31T16:44:55Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > have found Back in 2009. The big news was when they dated the seeds in 2021, then the pollen and OSL in 2023. I can’t tell if there’s something new here or it was just a slow science journalism week. > **[White Sands footprints](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Sands_footprints)** > > The White Sands footprints are a set of ancient human footprints discovered in 2009 in the White Sands National Park in New Mexico. In 2021 they were radiocarbon dated, based on seeds found in the sediment layers, to between 21,000 and 23,000 years ago. That date range is currently the subject of scientific debate, but if it is correct, the footprints would be one of, if not the oldest evidence of humans in the Americas. The earlier theory held that human settlement of the Americas began at th Th... ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-north-american-footprints-found/1019056/4 "2025-05-31T16:50:49Z")
> [@Ruken](#): > > slow science journalism week. I think this, given that there was a lecture on the subject last month which likely reignited interest. > **[‘Ancient Human Footprints at White Sands National Park’](https://denison.edu/events/event/157289)** > > The Ronneberg Lecture Series welcomes USGS Research Geologists Kathleen Springer and Jeff Pigati. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-north-american-footprints-found/1019056/5 "2025-05-31T19:37:11Z")
Yep, they keep pushing the date of human occupation of North America back later and later. That blows away some really bad hypotheses that even made it into textbooks. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2025, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-north-american-footprints-found/1019056/6 "2025-06-01T01:02:29Z")
That’s called science. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2025, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-north-american-footprints-found/1019056/7 "2025-06-01T01:47:42Z")
Yep. Lots of stuff is written down, recorded in text books and tomes and not one word of it is true. It’s ok it’s accessible, to show at least what we’ve been mistaken of. If new footprints change the way we go forth to learn more and what lead there were previous finds that seems like a positive. Sure the odd duck is gonna glom on to some old book with a recipe to make gold and swear it is true. It’s not supposed to be a _gotcha_, it is supposed to be a “here’s what I’ve learned, where can we go from here?” ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2025, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-north-american-footprints-found/1019056/8 "2025-06-01T02:14:33Z")
It’s not my area, but I recall there was some controversy when it comes to how long humans have been in the Americas. For a while, the Clovis civilization was thought to be the oldest group of people here and we have evidence for them dating back to 10,000 BC or so. I don’t think anyone’s career was ruined for suggesting pre-Clovis civilization, but it was an uphill battle changing minds. @Northern_Piper, I’m in agreement with you. It’s always nice to see evidence from so long ago reminding us that people are just people. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2025, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-north-american-footprints-found/1019056/9 "2025-06-01T03:13:39Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > That’s called science. Almost. Putting later disproved theories in textbooks is one thing, but not hypothesis with no evidence. > [@Odesio](#): > > . For a while, the Clovis civilization was thought to be the oldest group of people here and we have evidence for them dating back to 10,000 BC or so. I don’t think anyone’s career was ruined for suggesting pre-Clovis civilization, but it was an uphill battle changing minds. Some were labeled as crackpots, refused tenure, writings rejected, etc Mind you some stuff is justly controversial- But still needs to be looked at not mocked- [Cerutti Mastodon site - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerutti_Mastodon_site#:~:text=The%20Cerutti%20Mastodon%20site%20is,the%20otherwise%20fine%2Dgrain%20sands). > **[Calico Early Man Site](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calico_Early_Man_Site)** > > The Calico Early Man Site is an archaeological site in an ancient Pleistocene lake located near Barstow in San Bernardino County in the central Mojave Desert of Southern California. This site is on and in late middle-Pleistocene fanglomerates (now-cemented alluvial debris flow deposits) known variously as the Calico Hills, the Yermo Hills, or the Yermo formation. Holocene evidence includes petroglyphs and trail segments that are probably related to outcrops of local high-quality siliceous roc... But more solid stuff- now accepted- > **[Old American theory is 'speared'](https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-15391388)** > > An ancient bone with a projectile point lodged within it appears to up-end - once and for all - a long-held theory of how the Americas were populated. _The rib, from a tusked beast known as a mastodon, has been dated precisely to 13,800 years ago._ _This places it before the so-called Clovis hunters, who many academics had argued were the North American continent’s original inhabitants._ _…_ _In truth, the “Clovis first” model, which holds to the idea that America’s original human population swept across a land-bridge from Siberia some 13,000 years ago, has looked untenable for some time._ _A succession of archaeological finds right across the United States and northern Mexico have indicated there was human activity much earlier than this - perhaps as early as 15-16,000 years ago._ _The mastodon rib, however, really leaves the once cherished model with nowhere to go…Although scientists at the time correctly identified the specimen’s antiquity, adherents to the Clovis-first model questioned the dating and interpretation of the site…“You know, the Clovis-first model has been dying for some time,” he finished. “But there’s nothing harder to change than a paradigm, than long-standing thinking. When Clovis-First was first proposed, it was a very elegant model but it’s time to move on, and most of the archaeological community is doing just that.”_ ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2025, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-north-american-footprints-found/1019056/10 "2025-06-01T04:06:25Z")
My major professor - Anthropology, specifically North American Archaeology - always said he thought a more accurate arrival date was 25,000 years ago or so. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2025, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-north-american-footprints-found/1019056/11 "2025-06-01T05:36:33Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Yep, they keep pushing the date of human occupation of North America back later and later. Don’t you mean earlier? This whole thing is about footprints discovered in New Mexico that are far _older_ than any other evidence of habitation found in America. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2025, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-north-american-footprints-found/1019056/12 "2025-06-01T18:32:04Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > Don’t you mean earlier? Sure. It’s like the air conditioning- when you want it cooler- do you turn it up or down? But earlier works better. thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2025, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-north-american-footprints-found/1019056/13 "2025-06-02T14:50:45Z")
I found a post from 2003, and even back then it was accepted that humans had populated the new world a least several thousand years before Clovis.