Coso Rock Art District

Further information: Big and Little Petroglyph Canyons and Coso People

Coso Rock Art District
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark District
Bighorn sheep, a characteristic design at Coso
Nearest city:	China Lake, California
Governing body:	United States Navy
NRHP Reference#:	99001178
Significant dates
Added to NRHP:	October 8, 1999
Designated NHLD:	July 8, 2001

Big and Little Petroglyph Canyons
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
Archaic abstract curvilinear-style petroglyphs by Coso People
Nearest city:	China Lake, California
Area:	Coso Rock Art District
Governing body:	United States Navy
NRHP Reference#:	66000209
Significant dates
Added to NRHP:	October 15, 1966
Designated NHL:	July 19, 1964

Coso Rock Art District, containing the Big and Little Petroglyph Canyons, is a rock art site containing over 20,000 of Paleo-Indian and/or Native American Petroglyphs. The Coso Range is between the Sierra Nevada and the Argus Range. Indian Wells Valley lies to the south of this location. This north south trending range of about 400 square miles (1,000 km²) consists of rhyolitic domes and outcrops of volcanic rock. Also known as Little Petroglyph Canyon and Sand Tanks, Renegade Canyon is but one of several major canyons in the Coso Range, each hosting thousands of petroglyphs. The majority of the Coso Range images fall into one of six categories: bighorn sheep, entopic images, anthropomorphic or human-like figures, other animals, weapons & tools, and “medicine bag” images. Fortunately for the petroglyphs, most of the Coso Range is on the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, visitation is restricted, vandalism is low, and preservation is most likely. They are now located within the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, near the towns of China Lake and Ridgecrest, California. There are several other distinct canyons to the Coso Rock Art District besides the Big and Little Petroglyph Canyons. The most popular subjects are bighorn sheep, deer, and antelope.^{[citation needed]} Big and Little Petroglyph Canyons were declared a National Historic Landmark in 1964. In 2001, they were incorporated into a larger National Historic Landmark District, called Coso Rock Art District.

A November 2007 Los Angeles Times' Travel feature article includes it within a top 15 list of California places to visit.

Prehistory detail

According to that article: "No one knows for sure who decorated Little Petroglyph Canyon with images out of a dreamscape, some thought to be more than 10,000 years old. Or why the basalt walls of a narrow wash in the bone-dry Coso Mountains at the northern edge of the Mojave Desert became a magic canvas for flocks of bighorn sheep, hunters with bows and arrows poised and more. But the area is probably the richest Amerindian Petroglyph / rock-art site in the Western hemisphere. To see the canyon, one must contact either the Navy Base, or join a scheduled tour offered by Maturango Museum in Ridgecrest, California. A 40-mile drive on paved road except for the last 6 miles to access the trailhead, followed by a hike and a scramble along the canyon. Visits are scheduled only in the spring and fall."

There is considerable archaeological evidence substantiating trade between the Coso People, possibly of the Northern Paiute tribe, and other Indigenous peoples of the Americas and Native American tribes. For example, distant trade with the Chumash People is confirmed by archaeological recovery from coastal California sites in San Luis Obispo County.

See also

• Coso People
• Paleo-Indians
• Mesoamerica
• Native Americans in the United States
• Population history of American indigenous peoples

Petroglyphs Tour Info

Note: only U.S. citizens are allowed on the tours, and advance reservation is required.

• Maturango Museum, 100 E. Las Flores Ave., Ridgecrest, CA 93555; (760) 375-6900, http://www.maturango.org [2].
• Naval Air Weapons Station, (760) 939-1683.

Further reading

• Whitley, David S. "By the Hunter, for the Gatherer: Art, Social Relations and Subsistence Change in the Prehistoric Great Basin". World Archaeology 25.3 (1994): 356-373.

External links

• Coso Rock Art and the Coso Bighorn Sheep Cult
• Maturango Museum
• 7 photos
• Archeology Program: Coso Rock Art, at National Park Service
• Dating Coso Projectile Points
• Visiting the Coso petroglyphs at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake