The Mena weekly star., 1920-04-29
Proof of Air Tires in Stone Age
Mena Gets Much Publicity Because of Discovery by F. H. Daniels of Remarkable Stone.

Il
 It's nothing new to Polk county residents to be told there are many rocks of many varieties to be found in this vicinity, but the story about to be unfolded about one particular rock that is making Mena famous in cer- tain places, is not only new but inter esting.
 This particular rock that is now giving Mena such valuable publicity is now the property of the Goodyear Tire company, and is one of the com pany's prized advertising assets. In a recent issue The Denver Post, pub lished a lengthy article under the cap ton Here's Proof of Air Tires in Stone Age-Photo Shows Old Boys Had Comfort Four Million Years Ago." and it was all about Polk coun- tvs famous rock.
 A Colorado friend sent Fred Daniels a clipping from the Denver paper. con taining the story. It's worth reading. Read on down and see if it isn't
 They're all wrcng.
 "N0bby- headed historians and ar chaologists of the Rube Goldberg type who have written weighty tonnes about the life, customs and handieraft of the paleolithic and neolithic ages must have been fakers.
 Vehicles in the Chellean age trav- eied on rubber tires produced by our ancestors 100000 years ago.
 "Yep-that's the belief expressed by F. H. Daniels of Mena, Ark, in a letter to the Goodyear Tire & Rubber compsny--an he backs up his belief by photographic proof.
 Here's the story.
 While occupied in his duties as chairman of an improvement district of the Mena waterworks, Mir Daniels picked up on the outskirts of the town a twenty-pound stone that distinctly shows the imprint of what seems to be an all-weather tread tire. The dia- mond-shaped rubber buttons are rut into the stone unmistakably.
 What puzzles the westerner is how the print got there-expert mining engineers asserting that the stone is of formation of 4,00o, ,000 years ago. Consequently he has written the com pany asking just when it started the manufacture of these tires and re- questing a solution of the puzzle.
 The company has done considera- ble pioneering in tire manufacture, but is surprised at evidence tending to show that pneumatic tread was in existence on vehicles of the stone age. It is skeptical-but there is the photo graphic proof.
 "it being within the memory of all how Old Dobbin shied in terror at the first automobiles, Mir Daniels is al most afraid to reconstruct the scene in early days 4,000, 900 years ago. Think of the fright of the dimorpho- dons. first winged vertebrates. at sight of a pneumatic equipped Dino saurless six, driven by Paleolithic Pete. rcnhling along Main street
 Imagine cur stone age ancestor rising at dawn to the chime-like song of those grasping his crude, stone implements and reporting to work in the Paleolithie Rubber cena- pany. At nightfall. after hard days work building tires, he jumped into has speedy Cromagno runabout equip ped with pneumatics and gave him self over to the joy of the chase.
 Perhaps he went to some shady pool and with hook and line angled for the willy dinichthys or threaded forest trails to do battle with the ferorcious triceratops and the cunning ceratosanrus. You've got to hand it to these ancient industrians for fac ing prehistoric mamm0ths and other towering caTnivorous dinosaurs with nothing in the way of weapons but smooth stones flung by muscular right arm. Shades of Goliah and i Christy Mathewson.