In Utah’s Great Salt Lake Desert, archaeologists found 88 ancient human footprints on land used by the U.S. Air Force. These footprints are more than 12,000 years old, and many cannot be seen without special technology. The prints show that people, including children, once walked across what is now a dry salt flat.
Long ago, this area was a shallow wetland fed by seasonal floods. Soft, wet ground held each step, and later drying turned the layers into firm sediment that protected the tracks. Today, some prints appear briefly after summer rains and then fade again. Researchers call them “ghost tracks” because they seem to flicker in and out of view with changing weather.
A similar discovery at White Sands National Park in New Mexico showed hundreds of older footprints dating to about 23,000 years ago. A scientist named Thomas Urban, who studied the White Sands tracks, helped lead the work in Utah, linking the two rare sites in the story of early North America.
How Technology Revealed Hidden Lives
The Utah footprints were found during fieldwork by Thomas Urban and archaeologist Daron Duke, who were already studying ancient hearths and bison-hunting areas. Urban noticed faint marks on the ground that appeared to be human footprints. This chance observation led to a careful survey.
Ground-penetrating radar then showed dozens of buried prints that could not be seen from the surface. This radar sends radio waves into the ground and maps changes in soil layers. It revealed footprints from adults and children aged about 5 to 12. The sizes and patterns suggest families moving with a purpose across the wetland rather than wandering at random.
One print may even show an unusual gait, possibly from a clubfoot, though that remains an interpretation. Nearby, archaeologists found hearths, charcoal dated by radiocarbon, and butchered bison bones. Together, these finds point to repeated visits, seasonal camps, big-game hunting, and resource gathering in the area.
Why the Discovery Matters Today
The footprints offer a rare, direct look at daily life near the end of the Ice Age. Tracks from adults and children mixed together suggest multigenerational groups travelling, foraging, and hunting side by side. This picture challenges older ideas that Ice Age hunters moved mostly in small, separate bands of adults.
The find also supports a broader view that people were in North America by at least 15,000 years ago, possibly earlier, consistent with other ancient sites and with migration across the Bering Land Bridge. The Utah Test and Training Range covers about 2,300 square miles, and the U.S. Air Force now works with archaeologists to protect its buried history. Ground-penetrating radar can scan large areas quickly and avoid damage from digging.
This approach has led to wider surveys in Utah and beyond, including Nevada and Idaho. Experts warn that many more Ice Age sites may lie hidden on military lands, at risk from erosion, salt damage, and construction. The Utah footprints have drawn public attention through major media outlets and have inspired further research in fields such as anthropology and paleoclimatology. They show how modern technology can bring silent human stories back into the light, while new policies aim to safeguard them for the future.
Sources:
- Smithsonian Magazine, “Archaeologists Find 12,000-Year-Old Human Footprints in Utah,” August 3, 2022
- VICE, “Air Force Discovers Strange Disappearing ‘Ghost Footprints’ in Utah Desert,” August 8, 2024
- Cornell CALS / Cornell Chronicle, “Ice Age Human Footprints Discovered in Utah Desert,” July 26–31, 2022
- Interesting Engineering, “Human Footprints From 12,000 Years Ago Found at Air Force’s Utah Range,” August 3, 2022
- CNN, “Human Footprints From the Ice Age Found in Utah,” August 5, 2022
- Hyperallergic, “12,000-Year-Old Human Footprints Found in Utah Desert,” November 23, 2025