Archaeology of the Trout Creek Mountains

Big sage. Low sage. Grease wood.
Velvet ants. Wild rye and fescue.

Stone tools. Rock art.
Small lithic scatters.

Grinding tools down
in the lowland flats.

Uplands. Rock shelter.
Hunting & toolstone.

Obsidian higher.
Whitehorse obsidian.

Cold Dwellers. Red Butte Dwellers.
Two bands of Northern Paiute.
May have come from the South.

Followed herds of large animals.
Mastodon. Bison.
Western pluvial lakes.
Lake margins waterfowl.

Fish of the Trout Creek Mountains:
Redband. Lahontin.
Willow/Whitehorse Cutthroat.

Maybe 7,000 years ago.
Lakes shrunk. Seasonal settlements.
Settled near springs.

2,000 years later.
Whitehorse Creek.
Side-notched projectile points.

More wintertime food storage.
Hunted deer and bighorn sheep.
Had created sustainable life way.

1860’s. Snake Indian War:
No more rock art. Cash economy:
sheep, cattle, horses.

Horses hunted to extinction, then reintroduced.
Food produced elsewhere.
Shipped here and sold.

Mule deer. Watercress.
Rattlesnake. Blue bell.

Pronghorn. Wild Iris.
Bottle top. Magpie.

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