Into this landscape came, or more accurately, had already arrived into this landscape, the people whose footprints survived.

We do not know how many people were in the Tularosa Basin at any given time during the Last Glacial Maximum.

The footprints represent specific events — specific occasions when people walked specific sections of the lakeshore — not a census.

A handful of individuals, walking over days or seasons, could have produced the trackway evidence that has been identified.

Alternatively, the lake margin may have been a place of regular use by a larger regional population.

The footprints cannot tell us which, though researchers continue to work on questions about site extent and intensity of use.