Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedcation Page -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Part One: The Great Basins -- 1. Discovering a Great Basin -- Chapter Notes -- 2. Modern Definitions of the Great Basin -- The Hydrographic Great Basin -- The Physiographic Great Basin -- The Floristic Great Basin -- The Ethnographic Great Basin -- Choosing a Great Basin -- Chapter Notes -- Part Two: Some Ice Age Background -- 3. Glaciers, Sea Levels, and the Peopling of the Americas -- The Bering Land Bridge and the Human Arrival -- Identifying the Earliest American Archaeology -- The Earliest American Archaeology -- Chapter Notes -- 4. The End of the North American Pleistocene: Extinct Mammals and Early Peoples -- The Mammals -- A Note on Eurasian Extinctions -- Back to North America -- What Caused the Extinctions? -- Chapter Notes -- Part Three: The Late Ice Age Great Basin -- 5. The Late Pleistocene Physical Environment: Lakes and Glaciers -- Modern Great Basin Lakes -- Pleistocene Lakes in the Great Basin -- Great Basin Glaciers -- The Relationship between Pleistocene Glaciers and Lakes in the Great Basin -- Pluvial Lakes, Glaciers, and Late Pleistocene Climates -- Chapter Notes -- 6. Late Pleistocene Vegetation of the Great Basin -- Learning about Ancient Vegetation -- Five Regional Pictures -- A General Look at Late Pleistocene Great Basin Vegetation -- Great Basin Conifers in Deeper Historical Perspective -- Chapter Notes -- 7. Late Pleistocene Vertebrates of the Great Basin -- The Extinct Late Pleistocene Mammals of the Great Basin -- Extinct Late Pleistocene Birds -- Altered Late Pleistocene Distributions of Existing Great Basin Mammals -- Why Are There Fishes in Devils Hole, but None in the Great Salt Lake? -- Other Vertebrates -- Chapter Notes -- Part Four: The Last 10,000 Years -- 8. The Great Basin during the Holocene.

The Early Holocene (10,000 to 7,500 Years Ago) -- The Middle Holocene (7,500 to 4,500 Years Ago) -- The Late Holocene (The Last 4,500 Years) -- Chapter Notes -- Part Five: Great Basin Archaeology -- 9. The Prehistoric Archaeology of the Great Basin -- Pre-Clovis Sites in the Great Basin -- The Latest Pleistocene and Early Holocene -- The Middle Holocene -- The Late Holocene -- Chapter Notes -- Part Six: Conclusions -- 10. The Great Basin Today and Tomorrow -- Deer, Cougars, Porcupines, and Cattle -- More Lessons from the Past -- The Great Basin Today -- Chapter Notes -- Appendix 1: Relationship Between Radiocarbon and Calendar Years for the Past 25,000 Radiocarbon Years -- Appendix 2: Concordance of Common and Scientific Plant Names -- References -- Index.