Chillin' with the Trail Creek Caves: A Quirky Peek into 8,500-Year-Old Life in

Welcome, fellow travelers, to Trail Creek Caves – a charming cluster of twelve caves that hug Trail Creek, next to Cottonwood Creek, tucked away in the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, right here in the Seward Peninsula, Alaska. Scooped out by the archaeological team of Taylor Moto and Alfred Karmun way back in 1928, these caves sport quite the forelock-taunting history, with a slew of artifacts dating back around 8,500 years or so. Danish archaeologist Helge Larsen dug deeper during 1949-1950, uncovering remnants of our ancient hunter mates – stone tools, bone chips, scattered like yesterday's popcorn.

Fast forward to 2018, researchers from the University of Copenhagen cracked the genome code from a tooth excavated from Trail Creek Cave 2, dating back to roughly 9000 BP. The youngster from Trail Creek Cave 2 might've been part of an ancient Beringian crew, offering up fresh insights about the early residents of our shared home.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons