Lagomarsino Petroglyphs - Indian Rock Art

Lagomarsino Canyon contains an impressive collection of petroglyphs dating between 5,000 and 10,000 years old.  The rock art portraits etched on the basalt cliffs by ancient Paiutes number over 2,200.  The petroglyph below is one of one of only two sheep found in the entire gallery!

This images stikes me as avian in nature.  Perhaps the stork dropping off a baby?

A serpent, bird and fish fighting over a baby turtle?

A Plethora of Petroglyphs?..Nobody has deciphered what the images mean, for all we know, it could be teenagers just being teenagers, or they may hold a much deeper cultural meaning.

You have to go digging a bit for these images below, they're atop the rim rock and are very intricate.

Panorama of the Canyon

On the way out we hit Castle Peak Mine, if the invalids aren't using it for target practice, this 100 year old trommel is really cool to check out.

Remnants of a boiler for a steam engine?

Tailings a plenty.  From prior exploration, the workings appear to be pretty extensive and I'd guess the mountain is so excavated its about like swiss cheese.

A 40 foot climb through a vertical shaft.

Watch out for the ticks this time of year, they got a couple of us.

Pyramid - Damn that Dam!

If you think you knew everything about Pyramid Lake, guess again.

Pyramid Lake is Dying from John Pilger on Vimeo.

I found this 30 minute special on Pyramid Lake filmed in 1976 very informative. It tells the sad story of Derby Dam's fatal impact on Winnemucca Lake and the Paiute people. I knew that Winnemucca Lake had water in it as late as the 1930's, but did you know that the water in Pyramid Lake used to flow into Winnemucca Lake via a short section of the Truckee River which has since dried up. In other words, the Truckee River didn't always end at Pyramid Lake. I drive by the remnants of Winnemucca Lake on the way to Gerlach frequently, its hard to believe that as of 1905 it used to be 100 feet deep and that Lahontan Cutthroat Trout (Oncorhynchus clarki henshawi) used to swim freely between the two lakes. I'll point out two untruths in the video: 1) Coincidentally, in April of 1977 (the year after this film) Kent Sumners of the Utah Department of Fish and Game re-discovered, what taxonomical analysis has proven to be, the original strain of Pyramid Lake Lahontan Cutthroat Trout, scroll to Pg 199. These trout are now being reared at the Lahontan National Fish Hatchery (which I've visited) for eventual reintroductin into Pyramid Lake and other watersheds. 2) The current Summit Lake strain of Lahontan Cutthroat Trout in Pyramid obviously didn't go extinct at the turn of the century, despite the prediction of the fisheries biologist. Hope you enjoy, more to come on resurecting the original (30-40lb) strain of LCT in a future post.