Men Met Along the Trail: Adventures in Archaeology

by Neil M. Judd, Don D. Fowler (Foreword)

Originally published in 1968, this classic work by renowned archaeologist Neil M. Judd is a compilation of recollections and memories of his extensive career in archaeology. The stories told are truly those of “Men Met Along the Trail,” of the archaeologists, Mormons, Indians, prospectors, ranchers, and settlers that Judd encountered in his lifelong travels and work throughout the southwestern United States and beyond. There are meetings with leading American archaeologists such as “Dean” Byron Cummings, W. H. Holmes, and Charles D. Wallace, and famous Southwestern figures including Cass Hite, Dave Rust, and John Wetherill. Throughout are tales of early field work and typical camp life, from flooded canyons, run-ins with rattlesnakes, cumbersome pack trains, and early Model T Fords, to camp pranks, food shortages, and Zuñi dance celebrations.


Written at the request of young associates who felt Judd’s lifetime of experiences in the field could be both instructive and amusing, Men Met Along the Trail provides a glimpse of archaeology when it was an emerging field of study, evolving from simple curio collecting to technologically advanced radiocarbon dating and pollen analysis. Featuring more than thirty original photographs and a new foreword by Don D. Fowler, this book is entertaining and informative, offering readers a vibrant and colorful picture of the adventures to be found in early Southwestern archaeology.

222 pages, Paperback

First published December 28, 1968

Reviews

[Peter Tillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m reading some books I bought long ago and never got around to reading. This one I’ve had since the late 1970s, I think, when I moved to Arizona and got interested in Southwest archaeology. I have a first edition hb, bought for $5, the list price. The introduction (above) is pretty good.

It’s interesting to compare Judd’s memoirs to Elspeth Huxley’s classic “The Flame Trees of Thika,” which overlap in time, and which I just re-read. Judd was a college student when he started working in archaeology in 1907 for Byron Cummings, who I know of from his time at the University of Arizona a few years later. Judd was working in southern Utah, in areas just as poorly known then as where Elspeth’s parents were settling in Kenya around 1913. Both were still in the horse and buggy years — but the Model T Ford was coming, and became cheap enough for field work (and ordinary working men) by 1920 or so. Judd has an anecdote about archaeologist Earl Morris’s “Old Black.” After a bearing went out, Morris made a field replacement from a piece of bacon rind. “You don’t get bacon rind like that anymore” (p. 194).

Neil M. Judd (1887—1976) began his career as student of Dean Byron Cummings, who I know of for his long career at the University of Arizona. Judd's first job was at the then-new US National Museum, starting in 1911. He retired around 1958, and this book records his memories of 50 years as an archaeologist. He knew almost every archaeologist working in the Southwest in those years, and has amusing anecdotes about most of them; I may add some more from my notes. This is a very entertaining book, especially if you’re interested in the Southwest US, archaeology, or both. Easy 4+ stars.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Go back to a time that cannot be relived. Meet all those great archaeology giants. Meet a few other unforgettable characters. Dig a little dirt. Join the adventure.