Jefferson Reid is a southwestern archaeologist and professor of anthropology at the University of Arizona. Stephanie Whittlesey directs archaeological investigations for Statistical Research, a private consulting firm.

Carved from cliffs and canyons, buried in desert rock and sand are pieces of the ancient past that beckon thousands of visitors every year to the American Southwest. Whether Montezuma Castle or a chunk of pottery, these traces of prehistory also bring archaeologists from all over the world, and their work gives us fresh insight and information on an almost day-to-day basis. Descriptions of long-ago people are balanced with tales about the archaeologists who have devoted their lives to learning more about "those who came before". Trekking through the desert with the famed Emil Haury, readers will stumble upon Ventana Cave, his, "answer to a prayer". With amateur archaeologist Richard Wetherill, they will sense the peril of crossing the flooded San Juan River on the way to Chaco Canyon. Others profiled in the book are A. V. Kidder, Andrew Ellicott Douglass, Julian Hayden, Harold S. Gladwin, and many more names synonymous with the continuing saga of southwestern archaeology. This book is an open invitation to general readers to join in solving the great archaeological puzzles of this part of the world. Moreover, it is the only up-to-date summary of a field advancing so rapidly that much of the material is new even to professional archaeologists.