Picture Rock Pass Petroglyphs Site, Native American petroglyphs at Picture Rock Pass in Lake County, Oregon.
Picture Rock Pass Petroglyphs Site is an archaeological site in Lake County, Oregon, located along Highway 31 on a south-facing basalt boulder. The boulder holds ten carved figures in total, made up of three human forms and seven representations of four-legged animals.
The petroglyphs were probably carved between 7,500 and 12,000 years ago, during the Clovis or Stemmed Point period. After the last glaciation, pluvial lakes filled the Summer Lake and Silver Lake basins on either side of the pass, and their marshes drew bison, deer, antelope and mountain sheep. Clovis-period artifacts from Fort Rock Cave, 29 miles north, and the Paisley Caves, 20 miles south, confirm hunters used this corridor. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on 28 August 1975.
When the first white men passed through southeastern Oregon in the 1840s, the Yahuskin Band of the Northern Paiute lived around Picture Rock Pass; Tenino and Klamath peoples may also have used the area. The meaning of the ten figures is unknown; explanations include hunting ceremonies, migration routes, tribal territory, recorded myths or commemorated events.
The petroglyphs sit on Bureau of Land Management land just south of Oregon Route 31, between Silver Lake and Summer Lake, less than 100 feet (30 m) from the highway. The location is not well marked, so look for the south-facing basalt boulder near the summit of Picture Rock Pass.
One animal figure in the centre appears to carry a rider, but the rider's patina differs from the animal and the other figures, so it was likely added later; the original carving may have been a mountain sheep or other game animal.
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