The issue of whether or not the state should import foreign nuclear waste has again shone a spotlight on a remote corner of Tooele County: the west desert.

The west desert may seem barren and empty, but it also contains some of the first evidence of human life in our region.

No one can pinpoint when Tooele County was first inhabited. Archaeological studies conducted on materials recovered from Danger Cave near Wendover date the cave’s occupation at more than 10,000 years ago.

It’s hard for me to fathom there were people living in Tooele County before the settlement of Greece and the founding of the Roman Empire.

The world of those first residents was one without domesticated plants and animals. Even such primitive industries as basketry and pottery were unknown. When the weather was good, it is believed these humans lived outdoors and only moved into the shelter of caves and rock shelters in times of inclement weather. In order to survive those ancient times, men and women everywhere were compelled to be opportunists who utilized whatever wild food resources happened to be available.

Whatever clothing, tools or implements they needed had to be made by themselves from stone, wood or vegetable materials, or the bones, skins and sinews of hunted animals. There was nothing else.

Their ability to survive in the face of such formidable odds has been attributed to their intimate knowledge of the land and its resources. Nothing utilizable was overlooked.

The environment changed with the years. The Great Salt Lake rose and retreated in response to climate changes. This noticeably affected these early people’s food resources, many of which came from the marsh areas bordering the lake.

They adapted with the change. New skills were acquired, like basket weaving, and handheld spears were replaced by atlatls, which were later replaced by bows and arrows.

About a thousand years ago, newcomers who spoke the Numic tongue and who were known to the whites as Utes, Paiutes, Goshutes, and Shoshones moved into the northern Great Basin from their ancestral home in southeastern California.

Related to the Aztecs who settled in Mexico, they were forced to move out of their homeland by a climate which grew increasingly drier.

The effect of these newcomers on the original inhabitants of the west desert is open to speculation. It isn’t known at this time whether they displaced them, forcing them to move elsewhere, or whether they simply absorbed them and their lifestyle.

In any event, Tooele County became the home of these people, known as the Goshutes.

Migratory hunters and gatherers, the Goshutes were uniquely adapted to the dry desert environment of western Utah. Throughout the year they followed a closely scheduled local migration pattern finely tuned to bring them into the vicinity of various food resources as each became available. Their diet was essentially vegetarian and included all edible plant food available. High on the list of food times were pine nuts, roots, bulbs, fruits, the seeds of native plants and grasses. Animals and birds of many varieties, plus grasshoppers and “Mormon” crickets, were eaten when available.

The Goshutes lived in temporary cone-shaped brush shelters made from sagebrush or whatever resource was readily available.

Like everything else, their wardrobe was austere. When the weather was pleasant, sometimes a mere apron for the women and a breech cloth for the men sufficed. Woven rabbit-skin robes kept them warm during the winter.

Their social structure was simple. They lived in small family groups in Tooele, Rush, Skull, and Deep Creek valleys wherever there was enough food and water to sustain them.

The population of each band was determined by the quantity and quality of available natural resources. Most years there was usually little more than enough food to keep them going but in adverse years only the strongest survived.

Natalie Tripp: ntripp@tooeletranscript.com