LAS VEGAS (KLAS) A new study gives scientists a fresh look at what life was like in the Las Vegas valley more than 12,000 years ago. 

Before the strip, Southern Nevada was home to ice-age animals. The new discovery is helping to rewrite local history.

Tule Springs was once home to now extinct Ice Age giants – mammoths, camels, bison, and horses. New research shows humans were also living here thousands of years ago. It all started back in 1933, when scientists digging north of Las Vegas made a discovery.

“One single flake. I say a flake is like a piece of stone chipped off of a tool, an ancient stone tool,” Dr. Daron Duke, principal investigator for Far Western Anthropological Research Group, said.

That flake started decades of debate. Did people and ice age animals live here at the same time? More than 50 years later, Dr. Daron Duke says advanced technology confirms the coexistence of animals and humans right here in the valley, but there are still unanswered questions.

“What’s the rest of the story in how they lived alongside them?” Dr. Duke said. “We don’t know but we’re very interested and the public is still very interested in that.”

Efforts to preserve and protect this part of Las Vegas history led to the creation of Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument and Ice Age Fossils State Park, renewing research and public interest.

“We know there’s archaeology out there and it could be very compelling archaeology like what they thought they’d find that they didn’t find. The potential still exists,” Dr. Duke said. “There may be something really old going on with people alongside these now extinct animals like mammoths, camels, horses.”

The new study encourages even more digging and discovering at Tule Springs to uncover what Las Vegas was like before the neon lights and casino life. 

“There’s a lot of potential to learn and understand something that went on right here that’s not called the strip,” Dr. Duke said.

Ice Age Fossils State Park features a visitor center and walking trails that are open to the public. Right now, it is temporarily closed due to the government shutdown.