It is little wonder that the Southwest for so long has attracted the world"s attention and has become the proving ground for budding archeologists. It was the most fertile and accessible place to go. Wether hired as shovel hands in the in early expeditions or later as students in numerous university-sponsored field schools, people who have trained here and gone on to gain professional porminence comprise a long list. Their contributions and those of others is the story the authors of this book have excerpted and condensed for us. It is a story of those who came before, seeking knowledge about man"s relationship to this awesome landscape. This volume is evidence of the authors skills in bringing the people and places of the past alive. They favor us by having made a profession of archeology and in their own way by making an art out of their profession.