Abstract On this field trip, you will visit two important archaeological cave sites that provide the most compelling evidence for latest Pleistocene and earliest Holocene human occupation in the Bonneville Basin. Danger Cave, located near Wendover, Utah/Nevada, is famed for its deeply stratified archaeological deposits dating as old as 10,300 radiocarbon yr B.P., when the remnant of Lake Bonneville stood at the Gilbert shoreline. Bonneville Estates Rockshelter, located south of Danger Cave at the Lake Bonneville highstand shoreline, also contains well-preserved stratified deposits, including artifacts and cultural features dated to at least 11,000 radiocarbon yr B.P., making it one of the oldest known archaeological occupations in the Great Basin. We describe results of our recent research at these sites and show the stratigraphic evidence for these earliest human occupations. We also review recent work at the Old River Bed Delta, on Dugway Proving Ground, that has documented hundreds of Paleoarchaic occupation sites dating 11,000–8500 radiocarbon yr B.P. Together these localities give us an unparalleled picture of human occupation during the first few thousand years of known human occupation in the region, during a time of dramatic environmental change. Packrat middens, pollen sampling localities, and geomorphic features that illustrate the history of Pleistocene Lake Bonneville and the environmental history of the western Bonneville Basin will also be observed on this trip .

Abstract Donald R. Currey spent over two decades researching and exploring relics of ancient Lake Bonneville in the eastern Great Basin. Shoreline and deepwater deposits of Lake Bonneville document coastal processes, lake chemistry, and environmental change during the late Pleistocene and Holocene. This field guide summarizes findings at many of the classic localities researched by Currey and colleagues that contributed to the current understanding of this impressive pluvial lake and its interglacial successor, Great Salt Lake. Subjects include coastal processes at Antelope Island and the Stockton Bar; lake history, chemistry and environmental change at Stansbury Island, the Public Shooting Grounds and Hansel Valley; deltaic depositional processes at Big Cottonwood Canyon, American Fork Canyon and Brigham City; and the relative chronology of glacial and lacustrine deposition at Little Cottonwood Canyon and Bells Canyon.