00:00.00 archpodnet Welcome to the show everybody this is Chris Webster and if you're hearing my voice it means I'm talking to Allan about something interesting alan how you doing very good. Very good. 00:07.46 Alan Good. How are you I Yeah Welcome a chance Welcome Welcome a chance to catch up and talk about some interesting things in the world of Anthropology Archeology Rock art etc. Go ahead. Yeah. 00:14.73 archpodnet Yeah, absolutely so we were talking about what we were going to yeah so we were talking before the show about what we're going to discuss on here and something that actually comes up a lot in your life and I see the California Rock Art Foundation ah newsletters and it comes up in there as well and and that's little Lake California so we're going to talk about that today. What little lake is what it means and and really what the also at near the end. We'll talk about what the. California Rock Art Foundation field trips. That's a little like look like you're actually running one this Sunday which if you're listening to this podcast is actually in the past. So don't so you can't sign up for that one but another one might pop up and you were it and then and then go on that one. But why don't we place little league little lake in the world and tell people where it's out and and what it is. 00:54.64 Alan Exactly yeah. 01:05.52 Alan Yeah, so little lake has been a ah place that's been a part of my sort of anthropological archeological journey for about the last fifty years um it's located. 01:20.30 archpodnet Um. 01:22.40 Alan Right? along highway three ninety five in Eastern California it's um, just on the southernmost border of inno county as you ah head north into what's called the Owens Valley which and is on the eastern skirt of the Sierra Nevada the far Southern Sierra Nevada and the Owens Valley is where there's ah you know some very famous rock art but also some ah wondrous geological formations. The the highest mountain top in. Domestic United States is there in in Lone Pine Mount Whitney of course just ah yeah, just north of of bishop and it's ah known as the longest valley. It's it's an extraordinarily beautiful area of California and um. 02:02.32 archpodnet Um, that's my Whitney um. 02:17.87 Alan I've had the pleasure of learning about and visiting and doing various studies in for on and off for many many decades. So little Lake is a spring fed Lake That's along that highway and. 02:23.63 archpodnet So. 02:37.32 Alan You'll you'll see it. It's very. It's rather small and it is sort of coterminous or coincidental with the initiation of the ah volcanic ah basaltic flows that you begin to see as you enter Rose Valley and the Owens Valley 02:55.97 archpodnet Yeah, it does and I I've seen it many times going down highway three ninety five you can see it right off the highway there and the whole eastern side of it is just a basalt wall and kind of going on the southern side of it too. 02:57.00 Alan Any that makes sense now. 03:11.20 Alan And that's ah, no and and and that's exactly right? It is a big basalt wall. It's a basalt flow that heads into the the indian Wells Valley just north of ridge crest and and that area. 03:18.75 archpodnet Um. 03:27.44 Alan And literally the basalt stops it stops right? there and and what's interesting about little Lake per se the location and character of that particular spot is it is where the basalt the black basalt. 03:30.10 archpodnet Yeah. 03:45.80 Alan Of what's called the coso range touches the white ah granite of the eastern skirt of the sierra Nevada there's a constriction right? there right there and that's where we have little lake way way back when. 03:53.53 archpodnet Yeah. 04:01.60 archpodnet Awesome. 04:04.37 Alan Um, way back when when Emma Lu Davis was doing her work there in that part of the country. She enlisted a gentleman famous for his work in. Ah. Researching and reconstructing the prehistoric environments of the great basin. His name was Peter Meringer okay and what Peter did was ah get a boat and go out on this little lake and then try to core. 04:32.76 archpodnet Ah. 04:42.72 Alan The lake and and retrieve that core and date the radiocarbon elements to see how old the lake is and to reconstruct the climate the ah. Paleohydrological environment that existed for the last Thousand two Thousand three thousand four thousand five six seven thousand years ago and what is what he found was his core could not even get to the bottom of the lake and there was a a lake. 05:16.48 archpodnet If. 05:21.77 Alan Or a lacustrian moist ah arena there continuously for the last five six seven thousand years so you've got that lucustrian environment that that moist meadow and. 05:29.81 archpodnet Well, okay. 05:39.23 Alan And a actual lake of you know, fresh water that exists there for almost a continuous time from ah the middle archaic right through to historic times. Go ahead. 05:52.79 archpodnet Awesome! So What kind of I mean what kind of significance did this Lake really have to the people that lived in this region given the fact that you know it's not the only lake around but it has been there for a really long time and. You know, can we tell what significance it had based on the rock art. That's there or any other associated artifacts. 06:09.49 Alan Um, well the well given that it's a freshwater lake right? which is which is rather rather rare. Um the average rainfall in that southwestern corner of the great basin. Three inches three inches of rain. Okay, so you're talking about an oasis in the mojave desert. It's also right there on the interface between what we call the mojave desert and. The the deserts of the great basin now because of its existence throughout prehistory and history. There was of course a um travel route that was used um by the miners and by the. 06:47.81 archpodnet A. 07:01.49 Alan Ah, other people that wanted to travel that area and they had a stage station there in the eighteen fifty s and throughout prehistory in the late prehistoric period. The native people traversed the area and stopped that little lake as ah, you know, kind of a. Ah, a way station in the California desert before continuing their route towards the west towards the sierras and into the central valley and into the coast range and onto the ah the the coastalch plains etc. And um. 07:30.36 archpodnet Ah. 07:39.66 Alan So chances are little egg played some sort of a role in that whole interchange in that whole route and travel spectacle probably for most of history and prehistory. 07:53.50 archpodnet Yeah, okay. 07:58.58 Alan So there it is um I I got acquainted I got acquainted with it by accident I I knew little to nothing about it right? But as it turned as it turned out one of the first jobs. 08:07.57 archpodnet Good. 08:15.53 Alan Ever had to do in archaeology was when I moved to riverside and found myself needing employment and I went to work for the bureau of land management in ah in ah in the riverside office doing what was called the California desert plan. 08:34.98 archpodnet A. 08:35.14 Alan The desert planning staff where they were initially doing studies on where the greatest treasures of archaeology and history existed and biology and all the other resource bases throughout the California desert especially where it was located on. Government be it bureau of land management land and there in fact was a lot of blm um land right there around that place. We call little lake so I yeah became aware of that place and and was ah initially. 09:04.66 archpodnet Yeah. 09:13.93 Alan You know, attracted to it I wanted to know more about it and found it to be intriguing. There was a and there there was from many years ago a um cut off a turnoff into ah a parking lot and into a a little. Little trail that went to a place called fossil falls and fossil falls have and has nothing to do with fossils and nothing to do with ah really as much as with a waterfall per se but what it is is is the pleistocene river the Owens river. 09:38.30 archpodnet You. 09:51.13 Alan Traversed the ah the Eastern skirt of the sierras traveling down Owen's valley and meandering its way into that area just north of little Lake cutting a gorge and. Making a waterfall there at the edge of the coso range and so there's a dry waterfall that exists just north of the natural physical feature called little lake. 10:26.56 archpodnet Yeah I've never been over to Fossil Falls but I always see the signs for it and I've I've been meaning to get out there someday. Yeah so. 10:34.11 Alan Ah, yeah, well it's it's it's it's remarkable What you see is a bunch of scoured and fluted boulders right? that exist ah almost as though it was a mosaic or a sculpture a natural sculpture. 10:41.62 archpodnet Um, yeah. 10:51.29 Alan And people go there because of the fantastic fluted fluted forms that they can see and because of the the beauty and drama of that particular spot. It's ah it's a rather dramatic and exquisitely engaging place. 10:51.83 archpodnet A. 11:09.29 Alan Has it. 11:11.40 archpodnet Nice all right I think that's probably a good place to stop and then on the other side we'll talk ah a little bit more about the rock card at little Lake and what you can expect to see there. We'll be back in a minute. 11:21.41 Alan Um, sounds.