An Indigenous Site Named For The European Owner
Yeah, that irritates me. Like nobody thought to ask the Western Shoshone Tribe what they call the place. Or what the significance is/was. Or maybe what the symbols mean. Sigh.
Located about 2 miles off US 50 between Eureka and Austin, NV. The associated pass on the highway is 7200' (2100m) elevation. The climate is arid. There is a roughly 3/4 mile (1km) trail that shows many of the 10,000 year old petroglyphs.
The road into the site was dirt. Not gravel, dirt, and not well maintained dirt at that. Which is probably a net good thing because that is the only thing protecting this site from vandals.
This is the first rock/set of petroglyphs on the trail and it really got me excited.
I manipulated the first photo to expose what I could clearly see with my eyes. Counting marks, a thing not widely seen in petroglyphs. Can you see them? Right center, easiest to see in the shadow. I've enlarged this as much as I can with my photo editor, you might try making it bigger.
What were they counting? What were they recording? There are other glyphs on this rock, but these are almost unique.
Obviously 2 miles of nasty dirt road isn't enough to completely protect the site. All the light marks have been put there by recent visitors. Who wants to see 10,000 year old petroglyphs when you can look at this cleverness? Really?
Isn't this a beauty? So much there. My guess would be that everything had a special meaning, but what? I've no idea.
I think some detail is better in black and white. Like the hand prints center right.
There is an interlude on the glyph trail where you can look down the valley west of the site. 10,000 years ago there were two large lakes down there, and the people that made this site lived near the lakes and used them for irrigation and food.
Could this be the reason they came specifically here? That's cedar. Granted it's scrub cedar but... Cedar is one of the 4 smokes that are used by modern day plains Indians in a purification ceremony. Cedar is pretty rare in this dry climate. There were probably more when this site was active.
I have to admit I was less than completely impressed with the glyphs at this site until the last example. The shape and scope are amazing and the glyphs are even better.
This rock was obviously the centerpiece of the entire site. It had glyphs on almost every available surface.
This has grown to be a looong post. Believe it or not, I have more photos, but I think these are a good highlight of the site. Thanks for staying with me all the way to the end.
All words and photos in this post are mine. For better or worse.
Would you be able to pronounce it if they did? Okay, you might be able to, but would most anyone else? I personally find cedar trees so ugly, but it is amazing what the wood is like on the inside. Kind of like me, ugly outside, but beautiful inside :)
Oh, heavens no. I might learn it, or just fake it, but it'd be better than naming it for the owner.
I always thought the Western Cedar was a sort of attractive tree. It's tall and mostly straight with straight grained wood. Lots of fences and posts made of Western Cedar. This one is obviously not Western Cedar. :)
Good to see you
writingriding again, Tom! Wonderful ride!Thank you! It's really good to be back on the road-both roads, I think.
Thanks for stopping by!
Beautiful photographs @bigtom13! I love seeing new pictures of old
places I've not seen before. For many years I've read and looked at
lots of sites and petroglyphs, most are telling us about the sun and
moon, time and navigation, hunting and life. The seasons from
solstices to equinoxes. The ancient watchers kept good records! :-)
Sometimes turning the photo into a negative helps to see the patterns
better and when at a site putting some water on the rock helps reveal
even more.
Hmmmmm. I didn't think of using a negative to highlight the markings on the stone. I'll bet that would work (I'll try it on some of them). I had good light and could see at the sight better than it shows in the photographs.
I've been to several sites for solstice and equinox. Using shadow or light is pretty common to highlight a carving.
The indigenous populations in the west (whose record remains) either had some sort of mathematics or incredible observation skills when predicting/noting seasonal change. I see it again and again.
A note here that I did not deal with in the post. There was a place where a panel about 6 feet long by 2 feet high had been removed. The remaining surface was just too clean and there was 0 natural breakage underneath. I'm guessing that is in a museum or more likely, a private collection.
I've heard of two more sites in South Nevada that I need to check on. I'm thinking October or maybe November. Temps will allow camping at a lower elevation. I'll 'do' Great Basin National Park on the same trip...
Oh wow I wonder what was on that missing panel!
I will be looking forward to more of what you see! :-)
☀
Have you seen the video of the sun daggers on the
spirals at Fajada Butte during solstice and equinoxes?
Art with hands appears to have bird faces beneath, large rock at end of the post reveals what looks to be trees. If two lakes were there I am sure looking closely at these rocks one would see the animals in the area.
Counting holes may have been family size, such a pity no one stopped long enough to learn more!
!LUV
!BEER
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There were lots of recognizable things here-and I showed some of the geometric patterns. All in all it was a pretty intense site, compact and 'busy'.
The people that made these carvings lived in at least semi-permanent dwellings around the lake. It just had to get cold there at the end of the last glacial maximum. There are rumored to be dwelling sites to be explored. I hope some archeological work is done before they completely fall to time.
Hopefully a team go in and do exploratory work, linking the past may give direction in going forward.
People who lived during that age might have depicted stars above with those holes embedded in the rock face. So many options to answers in what they found noteworthy.
It annoys me when people add their shitty marks to new things - it pisses me off no end when they do it to things like this.
Yep. Exactly. How can that be justified in any head?
I can't figure out why they didn't name it after them. That doesn't even make sense, Tom.
This was such a cool find@ I didn't know enough about them all the times I was out there and even lived out there. A wasted youth. I think of some of the things I could have done and it just irritates me. Youth is wasted on the young. When my parents said it, I didn't know what it really meant. Until I did.
Why on earth would anyone deface something like that? Something that has no chance of being repaired, or doing it over? What kind of people do this? I am truly disappointed. They had to try hard to find something to ruin, yes?
This has been such an interesting, enjoyable post, and yes!!!! We are all glad to see you back!
WTH did you do with that cedar tree? :)
Love and Hugs!
At the end of the last ice age it was much wetter there in Central Nevada. I think the cedar trees would have been tall and lush. This survivor is just hanging on...
Even 'High Desert Petroglyph Site' would be a better name than the guy that owned the land way late in it's history. That practice really does irritate me.
Maya Angelou said "When we know better we can do better". All of us were young at one point, some of us got to know better, but only when it's time. Not a minute before.
I loved the place well enough to go back. The campground was just about perfect. Maybe next time I'll go north out of Las Vegas and go east a little to camp. I won't know until I do whatever it is...
Thanks for stopping by, Denise. Always appreciated.
I had not heard this, even if it was probably well known. I like it and yes, it is so very true.
Thanks, Tom!
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Hiya, @LivingUKTaiwan here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Honorable Mentions in Daily Travel Digest #1650.
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