The Grimes Point Petroglyph Trail and Hidden Cave are located about 12 miles southeast of Fallon on Highway 50. The Grimes Point Petroglyph Trail is easy walking and allows you to view "pit and groove" style petroglyphs that are 7,000 years old. Hidden Cave is just down the dirt road from the Grimes Point trailhead. Hidden Cave was a cache and burial site for the ancient inhabitants of the Lahontan Valley. There is an interpretive trail open year round for both sites. Tours of the cave, which require a guide, are offered the 2nd and 4th Saturdays of each month. They originate at the Churchill County Museum at 9 a.m.

Dates and Styles in the Grimes Point Area

Grimes point and the surrounding caves and rockshelters, by some accounts numbering as many as 26, were formed along the border of the transgressing and regressing ancient Lake Lahontan during the Pleistocene, between 75,000 and 10,000 years ago, the time of its final regression. The caves and rockshleters were inhabited as early as 9,500 years ago, based on the date established for the burial of “Spirit Cave Man”, and were returned to as the level of the associated marshes left by the ancient lake fluctuated. The caves were used for storage, living, and burial. Besides Hidden Cave, some of the other named sites include Grimes Burial Shelter, Spirit Cave, Hanging Rock, Fish Cave, and Burnt Cave.

Archaeologists S. M. and Georgia Wheeler unearthed “Spirit Cave Man”, the oldest mummy in North America from one of these caves in the 1940’s. It was confirmed through testing in the late 1990’s that the mummy dates back nearly 9,500 years. The mummy was a male, in his 40’s, and was buried with woven clothing, moccasins, a rabbit skin blanket, and other grave goods. His age is considered relatively old for an inhabitant of the area nearly 10,000 years ago.

The oldest petroglyphs associated with the caves are in the Pit and Groove style and date back at least 7,000 years ago. The name is derived from the many “pits” that are ground into the faces of rocks. These pits resemble the small mortars ground into sandstone surfaces across the southwest. Often found accompanying them are elongated “grooves” that are usually across an angular edge of a rock. The exact use or significance of the pits and grooves has not been established, although it is believed that they did not serve a utilitarian purpose, such as grinding pigments, as they did at sites in the southwest.

The Great Basin Pecked style is the next found in the sequence, dating from 3000 to 500 years ago. The earliest figures in this style are represented by circular or wavy lines, the later figures by straighter, more angular lines. These are distinctly different from the Pit and Groove style and begin to show possibly anthropomorphic forms, as well as forms of local fauna. Some of the petroglyphs in this style are believed to have had religious significance, possibly having to do with abundance in hunting.

For an extensive set of photos from the Grimes Point Petroglyph Trail, visit the Oregonrockart.com Grimes Point image page.