Post by jonsdigs on Aug 14, 2007 20:04:20 GMT -5
On Foot: Cavers from the past — pictographs at Lava Beds
By LAURIE KAVENAUGH - Style Editor
Chico Enterprise Record (CA)
8/14/2007
In last week's column, Thomas and I explored tube caves formed as a result of lava flows from Medicine Lake Volcano. That huge volcano is the oldest in the Cascade Range, although flatter after 500,000 years of explosive eruptions. It still spreads out on the northern horizon, just below cone-shaped Mount Shasta.
Formations in the park, either the maze of tunnels from the lava flows, the puddles of lava that left jagged moonscapes on the land or the cinder cones that rise over the high dessert, are but one page of the history of this quiet, isolated park.
It's been a park in one form or another since the mid-1920s. In the 1930s it came under the guidance of the park service. Trails were put in and some improvement in the caves was done to provide better access.
Before that, settlers such as J.D. Howard, spent time early in the 20th century exploring caves that people knew about, and making new discoveries. His initials, in neat script, can still be found on some of the cave entrances.
In the 1870s, the time of the Modoc Indian Wars, the U.S. Army slowly overtook the feisty Modoc Indians, who had lived in the area for hundreds of years and were desperate to regain land that had been given away. Captain Jack's Stronghold, a maze of volcanic hiding places for the Modocs, remains a park legacy.
In the unprinted pages of the past, Modoc ancestors took advantage of the waterfowl and fish that populated a then much larger Tule Lake, that sits within site of the
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park.
Symbol Bridge cave still carries their stories in vivid pictographs. June 8 Thomas and I were eager to walk the trail to this remarkable depository of pictographs, done by painting or fingering color on rock surfaces.
Full Article w/photos
By LAURIE KAVENAUGH - Style Editor
Chico Enterprise Record (CA)
8/14/2007
In last week's column, Thomas and I explored tube caves formed as a result of lava flows from Medicine Lake Volcano. That huge volcano is the oldest in the Cascade Range, although flatter after 500,000 years of explosive eruptions. It still spreads out on the northern horizon, just below cone-shaped Mount Shasta.
Formations in the park, either the maze of tunnels from the lava flows, the puddles of lava that left jagged moonscapes on the land or the cinder cones that rise over the high dessert, are but one page of the history of this quiet, isolated park.
It's been a park in one form or another since the mid-1920s. In the 1930s it came under the guidance of the park service. Trails were put in and some improvement in the caves was done to provide better access.
Before that, settlers such as J.D. Howard, spent time early in the 20th century exploring caves that people knew about, and making new discoveries. His initials, in neat script, can still be found on some of the cave entrances.
In the 1870s, the time of the Modoc Indian Wars, the U.S. Army slowly overtook the feisty Modoc Indians, who had lived in the area for hundreds of years and were desperate to regain land that had been given away. Captain Jack's Stronghold, a maze of volcanic hiding places for the Modocs, remains a park legacy.
In the unprinted pages of the past, Modoc ancestors took advantage of the waterfowl and fish that populated a then much larger Tule Lake, that sits within site of the
Advertisement
park.
Symbol Bridge cave still carries their stories in vivid pictographs. June 8 Thomas and I were eager to walk the trail to this remarkable depository of pictographs, done by painting or fingering color on rock surfaces.
Full Article w/photos
