Yabba Dabba Doheny: Expedition “Proves” Men Lived Among Dinosaurs

Photo of "dinosaur" petroglyph by Robert L. Carson

In Orange County, the Dohenys are remembered not only for oil tycoon Edward L. Doheny’s wealth and philanthropy, but also for the family’s major investments in coastal lands around Dana Point. The Doheny Park development of Capistrano Beach was named for Edward L. “Ned” Doheny, and the family later donated what became Doheny State Beach to the citizens of California after Ned’s death. Facts and conjecture about Ned’s tragic and untimely demise have been rehashed countless times. But what follows is another Doheny story we don’t hear much about,…

In 1879, Edward L. Doheny (Sr.) visited Havasupai Canyon in Northern Arizona as a young prospector. He and his party were among the first white men to explore that canyon, and they saw all manner of strange things, including mind-boggling rock formations, an underground river with a flow unchanged by the seasons, and some amazing prehistoric rock art. 

Edward L. Doheny, oil magnate, in the 1920s

In Fall 1924, as an older and now fabulously wealthy Los Angeles oil magnate, Doheny financed an expedition to that same Canyon to document its wonders. A report, The Doheny Scientific Expedition to the Hava Supai Canyon, Northern Arizona, was published by the Oakland Museum in 1925.

Again, all sorts of interesting natural and man-made wonders were found. But one feature got most of the attention: An 11.2-inch-tall image, looking something like a brontosaurus, carved into a rock wall.

Sketch map of route of the expedition

Much of the world's ancient rock art collectively amounts to the world’s largest Rorschach test.

Samuel Hubbard, director of the expedition, saw that this was the sort of earth-shaking story that could give him a higher profile, and he carefully ignored any suggestion that the image might not be a dinosaur. He wrote, “The fact that some prehistoric man made a pictograph of a dinosaur on the walls of this canyon upsets completely all of our theories regarding the antiquity of man. Facts are stubborn and immutable things. If theories do not square with the facts then the theories must change, the facts remain.”

Petroglyph supposedly showing a giant man being attacked by an elephant. Or perhaps a normal-sized man being attacked by a tiny elephant?

Other images among the same cache of pictographs purportedly depicted rhinos, ibexes, an elephant with enormous toes, and another elephant or mastodon hitting a fourteen-foot-tall man on the head with his trunk. (In a curious coincidence, remains of an ancient mastodon were uncovered near what’s now the intersection of Calle Granada and Calle Delores during the development of Doheny Park in 1929.) 

Employees of Doheny's Petroleum Securities Co load Dana Point mastodon, (housed in a plaster cast) for transport to the L.A. Natural History Museum, 1930

The Doheny expedition’s scientist, Charles Gilmore of the United States National Museum, pointed out that dinosaur tracks from the Triassic Period can be found no more than 100 miles from the site, on the edge of the Painted Desert. They stopped and took plaster casts of those footprints for good measure.

The report states, “The fact that the animal is upright and balanced on its tail would seem to indicate that the prehistoric artist must have seen it alive.”

Of course, we now know that dinosaurs didn’t balance on their tails. We also know that innumerable fanciful creatures that never existed are depicted in such petroglyphs. But no matter.

Some religious sects believe that mankind appeared in its current form exactly six days after the universe was created. Some also believe that the earth is only 6,000 to 10,000 years old. The fossil records showing that dinosaurs and humans were separated in time by 200-some million years really sticks in their craw. As such, original copies of the 1925 expedition report are in high demand by those looking for “scientific proof” that dinosaurs and humans lived side-by-side. 

In a 1927 supplement to the booklet’s second edition, Hubbard cites “the amazing Scopes Trial” having come and gone, and that their dinosaur pictograph has been dragged into the raging national debate of creation versus evolution. He claims that the report’s goal is to be unbiased and simply present “facts and truth.” Actually, in addition to the report’s strong bias toward men having lived among dinosaurs, the later supplement almost reads like a (somewhat defensive) religious tract. It also cites other prehistoric artifacts that “support” the Flintstones theory, including,

• A fossilized impression of a shoe sole [Florsheim?] from the Triassic
• An ancient rock carving from Oregon, which supposedly depicts a stegosaurus [but which looks much more like a chameleon or iguana]
• A human molar from the Eocene Period [later found to be just a tooth-shaped rock]
• Surviving tissue in a “mummified” duck-billed dinosaur [which was actually an imprint, rather than actual mummified tissue]
• A carved “stone idol” of indeterminate age from Granby, Colorado, supposedly depicting an elephant and two dinosaurs [which mysteriously and permanently went missing when someone suggested it be sent to the Smithsonian for authentication]
• The book, The Lost Continent of Mu, written by well-known crackpot Col. James Churchward

Dana Point, viewed from the palisades of Doheny Park, 1930s

Despite the involvement of a respected expert like Charles Gilmore, Hubbard's theory hasn't done much to convince scientists (or rational people generally) that dinosaurs and humans once lived side-by-side in the American West. One wonders just how much Doheny oil money was paid out to experts and others involved in the expedition and the resulting report.

My thanks to Hank Koerper for bringing this strange series of events to my attention.