Galleries » Brownstone Canyon, Nevada

Brownstone Canyon Archaeological District comprises 2,920 acres and is just east of Turtle Peak in the Red Rock Conservation area outside Las Vegas. The Brownstone Canyon site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Native American groups that have used this area are Archaic cultures, Anasazi, Southern Paiute, and Patayan. They left behind roasting pits. rock art and trash piles tracing back to around 3500 BC.

Brownstone features a group of pictograph panels that stretch over 50 feet at the base of a cliff face, in addition to at least two other major petroglyph groupings on outlying rock outcrops. Natural compounds such as charcoal for black, ocher for red, sandstone for yellow, gypsum for white, are mixed with animal fats to create a paint that was applied with fingertips or hairbrushes. Picture collages contain anthropomorphs, zoomorphs, geometric symbols, zigzag lines, drinking goblets and linear dot patterns to name but a few. It is certainly one of the largest such panels in the Southwest. On the outlying outcrops at the site, petroglyphs have been damaged due to vandalism and rifle shooting target practice.  

Of note, on the return journey to the trailhead in Calico Basin, Artwestimage photographers decided to take a shortcut. over the high ridge to Turtlehead Peak.  After a 1000 foot climb via portions of the Upper Gateway Canyon area, the hikers dropped to the drainage below to connect with the trail over Kraft Mountain which leads to Calico Basin.  During the descent, photographer Greg Nelson fell some 10 feet a steep and rocky talus slope and landed on his camera, which was secured in a chest harness.  It was later determined that the camera lens was shattered and the camera body worse for wear.  Greg also broke three ribs, which took two months to heal.  Learning from this experience, Nelson takes it upon himself to never again secure a camera in this manner, and in such conditions which require climbs or descents!