Terese Habitation Site - El Paso Mountains

I've posted a lot of photos from my trips to various Indian habitation and rock art sites. This spot, called Terese, doesn't have fancy pictographs, caves, or rock shelters, but it still just might be my favorite of them all. It wasn't discovered until the late 1990's and is just about as pristine as can be. It is also very large (I've yet to see all of it).  

The great places are usually hard to get to and this one is no exception. Folks, don't try this road in your car or mini-van.

A kitchen with all the built-ins. A mortar, a slick and a metate. It's the trifecta of milling stones. All we're missing is a Cuyamaca Oval. There even looks to be a few cupules.

 Another large, but broken milling stone. 

There were many sleeping circles in the area. The next several were all in the same area. 

Finally to the pictographs. This was my favorite of the day. The largest image appears to by a mountain lion, or maybe a coyote.

The large image is a Coso style Bighorn Sheep. Based on that and what appears to be an "Atlatl" in the right lower corner. These petroglyphs are likely to be from 1000 to about 2500 years old (plus or minus). The atlatl was a dart/arrow "launching device" that pre-dates the bow and arrow. This site is also thought to be the most southern known location of the Coso style rock art.

I believe the symbol in the middle represents a medicine bag or pouch.  

We didn't get to see a lot of the site, because it was getting dark.  Next time...

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Sheep Springs Petroglyphs - El Paso Mountains Wilderness

Not long ago (yes, I'm way behind) I visited the Sheep Springs Petroglyph site, located in the El Paso Mountains Wilderness Area. A beautiful, rugged and isolated area that is chock full of history. I had never been to this site before. The details of how that happened are located after the last photo.

We had already been to a few stops this day. We are are now headed toward those mountains. Big beautiful and wide open. 

It looks pretty far, but the road is looking pretty good. You've heard that from me before, right?

 Still pretty darn good!

 Here comes the fun part. For those of you that haven't done this, it really is fun.

Somehow, I have no photos of the transition from vehicles to rock art. There are a lot of petroglyphs here and this is one of my favorites.

This one also

Human form (Anthropomorphic) petroglyph

Animal form (Zoomorphic) petroglyphs (mountain sheep)

Anthropomorphic/Zoomorphic hybrid (left side of rock)

Close up of the part man, part animal petroglyph

Here is another example of the hybrid. I know there is a better word for that, but I can't think of it just now.

Many designs are made of four parts. I've read several explanations relating to them. The four seasons, four main directions, four phases of life, etc. I also read that it is just a shield....

 A very old milling or grinding stone. Usually referred to as a "metate" or "slick."

I have no idea what kind of creature this represents, but it is very cool  Maybe a centipede? 

There is a lot more information available about these petroglyphs, but I'm not going to include much. Some of you will remember when my blog posts were mostly words with a few photos. Too much info isn't necessarily a good thing for a blog. However, I will tell you that these petroglyphs are thought to be at least a couple thousand years old. 

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This FWD expedition was organized by Death Valley Jim. In addition to being a good guy, Jim is an explorer, scout, wilderness guide, writer, photographer and master of all things desert related. I've been around the desert a lot more than most folks and I know where a lot of great "non-tourist" places are located, but I have to admit that I'm not in the same class as Jim. I'm trying though...



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Burro Schmidt's Tunnel - El Paso Mountains

The title of this post should probably be "Burro Schmidt's Folly." 

William Henry (Burro) Schmidt was mining gold from this spot near the top of Copper Mountain. To have his ore processed, he had to bring it out of the mine, then take it down and around the mountain to a road that led to the town of Mojave, several miles on the other side. For some reason, he thought it would be less work to dig a shortcut through the mountain. I'm not sure what he was thinking, but it took him 38 years to dig the tunnel with hand tools through about a half mile of solid rock.

He began digging the tunnel in 1900.  By 1920, a road was built around the mountain, eliminating the need for the tunnel. Schmidt's nickname wasn't Burro for no good reason. By this time, Schmidt had spent way too much time in the tunnel. Despite the existence of the new road, he was obsessed with finishing his tunnel. I guess he figured he was almost done, so why not finish it. 

Finish it he did and it only took him 18 MORE YEARS!  When he was done with the tunnel he sold the whole thing and moved on. He never did use the shortcut to move his ore.

 It looks really dark in there!

 Maybe I'll just go in a bit and check it out.

The sunlight sure doesn't reach too far into the tunnel! 

 My flashlight made it look pretty eerie.

 It looks even weirder with a camera flash. It wasn't the eeriness of the tunnel that kept me from walking to the other side and back, it was the.... 

 DUST!

 I'm sure it wasn't healthy to breath this stuff in and I'm sure it was even worse on my camera. I turned around after about a hundred yards or so. Must have been my hallway phobia again...

 This is the view looking out of the tunnel. 

This is where Mr. Schmidt lived. It has been a museum of sorts for many years, but everything started to disappear so a fence and "no trespassing" sign were installed.

I've run across a lot of odd things, places and people in the desert, but I've got to say, this was one of the oddest. This guy was as stubborn as they come...
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Burro Schmidt's Tunnel was one of the stops on my day with Death Valley Jim. He was a gracious host and showed us several great places. Including The Old Dutch Cleanser Mine, this place and a few others.


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