Winnemucca Lake
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Winnemucca Lake is a
dry lake A dry lake bed, also known as a playa, is a basin or depression that formerly contained a standing surface water body, which disappears when evaporation processes exceeds recharge. If the floor of a dry lake is covered by deposits of alkaline c ...
bed in northwest
Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...
that features the oldest known
petroglyphs in North America A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...
. Located astride the border between Washoe and Pershing counties, it was a shallow lake until the 1930s, but was dried when a dam and a road were built that combined to restrict and block water flow. It was formerly designated as a National Wildlife Refuge, but its status as a refuge was removed due to the lack of water. Winnemucca Lake is home to several
petroglyph A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...
s long believed to be very old. In 2013, researchers dated the carvings to between 14,800 and 10,500 years ago. Either date would make them the oldest known petroglyphs found in North America. The carvings lie within the
Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation The Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe Reservation is a United States reservation in northwestern Nevada, approximately northeast of Reno, in Washoe, Storey, and Lyon counties. It is governed by the federally recognized Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, wh ...
.


Geography

Winnemucca Lake is a sub-basin within the
Lahontan Basin Lake Lahontan was a large endorheic Pleistocene lake of modern northwestern Nevada that extended into northeastern California and southern Oregon. The area of the former lake is a large portion of the Great Basin that borders the Sacramento Rive ...
in northwestern
Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...
. It lies east of Pyramid Lake and is on the dividing line between Washoe and Pershing counties. The lake bed lies between the
Lake Range The Lake Range is a mountain range located in western Nevada in the United States. It is entirely in Washoe County, and the southern two-thirds are in the Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation. The range runs north-south for approximately and a widt ...
on the west and the
Nightingale Mountains The Nightingale Mountains are a north–south trending range located along the western border of Pershing County and extending into the northeastern corner of Washoe County. The range has a length of and a width of about . The highest peak has ...
and
Selenite Range The Selenite Range is a mountain range in western Pershing County, Nevada. The range is a north–south trending feature approximately long and wide. The Fox Range lies to the west across the San Emidio Desert valley and the south end of the Bla ...
to the east. Winnemucca Lake is about long and about wide. The lake bed is at an elevation of ,''Kumiva Peak, Nevada—California,'' 30x60 Topographic Quadrangle, USGS, 1984.''Reno, Nevada—California,'' 30x60 Topographic Quadrangle, USGS, 1980. which is below the water level of adjacent Pyramid Lake.


History

Winnemucca Lake may have been dry when
John Frémont John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...
came through in 1843–44. Frémont's 1844 map indicates that he traveled to the west of Winnemucca Lake and does not map the Winnemucca Lake valley. The Elko Free Press reports that there was a flood in 1862 that filled the lake to , but Russell states that the level was low in 1862. In 1865, Winnemucca Lake (then known as Mud Lake) was the site of the Battle of Mud Lake where 29 soldiers from the 1st Nevada Volunteer Cavalry Battalion led by Captain Almond B. Wells (and two civilian guides) killed 29 Smoke Creek Indians. At least two of those killed were women, possibly more.
Sarah Winnemucca Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins ( – October 17, 1891) was a Northern Paiute author, activist (lecturer) and educator (school organizer). Her maiden name is Winnemucca. Her Northern Paiute name was Thocmentony, also spelled Tocmetone, which translates ...
wrote "I had one baby brother killed there. My sister jumped on father's best horse and ran away. As she ran the soldiers ran after her but thanks be to the Good Father in the Spirit land my dear sister got away. This almost killed my poor papa." The maximum level of the lake was in the 1880s Winnemucca Lake was a shallow
tule ''Schoenoplectus acutus'' ( syn. ''Scirpus acutus, Schoenoplectus lacustris, Scirpus lacustris'' subsp. ''acutus''), called tule , common tule, hardstem tule, tule rush, hardstem bulrush, or viscid bulrush, is a giant species of sedge in the pl ...
-filled lake and an important stop for migrating
waterfowl Anseriformes is an order of birds also known as waterfowl that comprises about 180 living species of birds in three families: Anhimidae (three species of screamers), Anseranatidae (the magpie goose), and Anatidae, the largest family, which in ...
. After the
Derby Dam Derby Dam is a diversion dam built from 1903 to 1905 on the Truckee River, located about east of Reno in Storey and Washoe counties in Nevada, United States. It diverts water into the Truckee Canal that would otherwise enter Pyramid Lake. T ...
was built on the
Truckee River The Truckee River is a river in the U.S. states of California and Nevada. The river flows northeasterly and is long.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed October 20, 2012 The ...
in 1903 (the first project of the
Reclamation Act The Reclamation Act (also known as the Lowlands Reclamation Act or National Reclamation Act) of 1902 () is a United States federal law that funded irrigation projects for the arid lands of 20 states in the American West. The act at first covere ...
), and State Route 447 (which blocked the
slough Slough () is a town and unparished area in the unitary authority of the same name in Berkshire, England, bordering west London. It lies in the Thames Valley, west of central London and north-east of Reading, at the intersection of the M4 ...
connecting it to Pyramid Lake) was built, Winnemucca Lake dried out and has remained seasonally dry since the late 1930s. In 1936,
Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
invoked the
Migratory Bird Conservation Act The Migratory Bird Conservation Act of 1929 ({{usstat, 45, 1222) of February 18, 1929, (also known as the "Norbeck-Andresen Act") created the United States Migratory Bird Conservation Commission (MBCC) to consider and approve any areas of land and/ ...
to create the Winnemucca Migratory Bird Refuge as a "refuge and breeding ground for migratory birds and other wildlife." In 1940, the name was changed to the Winnemucca National Wildlife Refuge. In 1962, the refuge designation was removed, making this area the first refuge designation lost because of lack of water.


Petroglyphs

The western end of Winnemucca Lake is home to several boulders carved with
petroglyph A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...
s that lie within the
Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation The Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe Reservation is a United States reservation in northwestern Nevada, approximately northeast of Reno, in Washoe, Storey, and Lyon counties. It is governed by the federally recognized Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, wh ...
. The site, officially designated 26Wa3329, was first described by Connick and Connick in 1992. The team, Frances and Robert E. Connick, classified it as unusual, and possibly very early. In 1994, geochemist Larry Benson determined the designs had been carved into a branch form of
tufa Tufa is a variety of limestone formed when carbonate minerals precipitate out of water in unheated rivers or lakes. Geothermally heated hot springs sometimes produce similar (but less porous) carbonate deposits, which are known as travertine. ...
, a type of limestone. The research showed that the limestone was deposited between 16,200 and 14,800 years ago, but no specific date for the carvings was suggested. In 2013, a team of researchers from the
University of Colorado at Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado sys ...
(including Benson) collected carbonate crust and shallow-water algal formations from the site. They then used
radiocarbon dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was dev ...
strontium Strontium is the chemical element with the symbol Sr and atomic number 38. An alkaline earth metal, strontium is a soft silver-white yellowish metallic element that is highly chemically reactive. The metal forms a dark oxide layer when it is ex ...
isotope analysis and total inorganic carbon data from a core in Pyramid Lake to establish a window of when the lake level was low enough to allow access to the rocks. Sedimentary cores were collected from nearby Pyramid Lake and subjected to analysis to determine rise and fall of the waterline over time. More precise methods of dating would have required taking scrapings from the grooves of the petroglyphs, which was not allowed by the Pyramid Lake
Paiute Paiute (; also Piute) refers to three non-contiguous groups of indigenous peoples of the Great Basin. Although their languages are related within the Numic group of Uto-Aztecan languages, these three groups do not form a single set. The term "Pai ...
Tribe. However, Benson was allowed to use non-invasive techniques to examine the petroglyphs that allowed him to work to the side of the carvings. The research was published in the ''
Journal of Archaeological Science The ''Journal of Archaeological Science'' is a monthly peer-reviewed academic journal that covers "the development and application of scientific techniques and methodologies to all areas of archaeology". The journal was established in 1974 by Aca ...
''. Dating of the lowest (newest) carbonate crust yielded a date of 10,200 to 9,800 years ago. The algal formation dating suggested the waterline was sufficiently low from 12,600 to 11,400 years ago. The sedimentary core analysis of Pyramid Lake showed the waterline began to fall about 15,000 years ago, reaching a low approximately 13,300 years ago. At about 13,200 years ago it rose again, and had intermittent low periods thereafter (from 11,300 to 10,500 according to one method, or from 11,500 to 11,100 according to another). The broad consistencies among the various dating methods allowed the research team to conclude the petroglyph rocks were above the waterline, and thus available for carving, from 14,800 and 13,200 years ago and between 11,300 and 10,500 years ago. Additionally, the younger date range is consistent with the date of textiles previously found within the Winnemucca sub-basin (dated as old as 10,700 years ago) and the date of various human artifacts previously found within the Lahontan Basin (dated from 11,000 to 10,400 years ago). The younger dates also align with the estimated age of the
Spirit Cave mummy The Spirit Cave mummy is the oldest human mummy found in North America. It was discovered in 1940 in Spirit Cave, east of Fallon, Nevada, United States, by the husband-and-wife archaeological team of Sydney and Georgia Wheeler. He was said to b ...
found nearby. Either date range would make the petroglyphs the oldest found in North America to date. The older date would roughly correspond to the estimated time of the first human migrations into North America and to remains found in Paisley Cave,
Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...
. Previously, the oldest carvings in North America were thought to be those estimated to be 7,300 years old found at Long Lake, in Oregon. The rocks include both simple petroglyphs such as straight lines and swirls and more complex petroglyphs that resemble trees, flowers, or the veins of a leaf. There also is an intricate diamond pattern on one rock. The smallest are approximately in width, while the largest are . Grooves are approximately deep. The carvings are deeper and larger than those typically found in the Southwestern United States. The meaning of the carvings is unknown. The Connick team suggested the petroglyphs may represent meteorological symbols such as clouds and lightning. Benson's team suggests the Winnemucca Lake petroglyphs share several distinctive features in common with the Long Lake petroglyphs that are not found in more recent petroglyphs. How the petroglyphs were created is not known. One possibility is that hard volcanic rock was used to chip away at the softer carbonate formations on the boulders.


References

{{authority control Endorheic lakes of Nevada Former lakes of the United States Lakes of Nevada Lakes of Pershing County, Nevada Lakes of Washoe County, Nevada Petroglyphs in Nevada