White Mountain Petroglyph Site
Rock Art
This page contains a discussion of the rock art found at the White Mountain Petroglyph Site in Wyoming. All photographs are from our our personal collection. If you'd like to see more rock art from this location, or if you'd like to see higher resolution or larger images, send us an e-mail message and we'll see what we can do.
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- See American Antiquities Act of 1906.
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This site is more impressive than I first thought it might be, from descriptions that I'd read, and the lack of information about it. When we arrived, we found a large sandstone outcrop which stood out from the surrounding cliffs; an indication as to why there was a concentration of petroglyphs at this location. We also notices several pack rat middens high up on the cliff, as well as several cave openings along the base of the cliff.
We skirted the base of the cliff to begin our inspection along the west side of the face, working our way along the south and toward the east end of the exposed sandstone. We did find some evidence of modern graffiti, but those who made these destructive marks at least respected the existing marks and did not destroy any that we could identify. The sandstone is very soft, and it would be quite tempting to leave some sort of incised evidence that one had visited the location. Perhaps due to its remote location it has been better preserved than some.
Two of the cave entrances seem to be used by bats, due to the large amount of excrement on the walls and floor of the caves. We also found a third cave that looks like it had been inhabited or used as some sort of temporary living space; there was carbon on the roof, indicating some sort of fire had burned inside. There were several petroglyphs around and just inside this entrance, including the only evidence of red paint on any of these panels (see the photo at the top of this page). It did not appear to have been applied in any particular pattern, but seemed to have been smeared on. There was also a large red dot on the other side of the opening.
There are quite a few interesting types of petroglyphs on these panels, including horses with riders, large elk and deer, and several anthropomorphic figures that appeared to be representing females, due to their arrangement above what appeared to be natural holes in the sandstone. You can see several examples of these in the photos presented at the bottom of this page.
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There were several images of mammals, including what appeared to be horses, elk, and deer, and one image that looks like a coyote (although it may have been created at a more recent date). There was one image that we found that looked like some sort of bird, and then this lone figure that looks like a lizard. Many of the images are faded with time, with the soft sandstone surface weathering away quickly. Other images, like this one, are deeply cut into the stone, with what appears to be sharp "V" shaped depressions, which may indicate the use of a metal object, such as a knife, to score the stone. |
This panel shows a variety of figures, from the obvious anthropomorphic figure toward the left, a few zoomorphic figures, and a variety of random-appearing marks and scratches. |
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This large figure, perhaps two feet from its top to its bottom, was near a slit in the sandstone that could have been used as a small storage area. At first this gives the impression of a large, flat fish, with a tail and dorsal fins coming off to the left. But with no lakes in this area, and no fresh water fish with this body type, I suspect that this is just an interesting geometric pattern. There is always the chance, because of its association with the entrance to a small cave, or overhang, that it represents some sort of a solar calendar. However, any shadow cast would have represent some event in the morning sky, as by noon the image would be completely in the full sun. |
