Field Trips

When I read recently about a movie that was made of the pictographs (or petroglyphs, I always get them confused) near China Lake it brought back a lot of memories of the many field trips that I went on with my parents Paul and Marion Deaver, organized by the Kern-Antelope Historical Society. I have been to the China Lake site on such an outing.

I could probably write about field trips with that group for the next six months, but I try to “sprinkle” them in every now and then.

One such trip was to the Kern valley area to view the remains of a rock wall believed to have been built 2,000 to 3,000 years prior by “Chinese or Egyptians.”

This interested me, since I had no idea that these people could have ever been there.

The article noted that anthropologists believed that up to one million people lived in the South Fork area, not far from Weldon.

Buck Raines, who led the field trip, said he had lived in the area for over 25 years, and had seen carvings on the ancient wall, believed to have been created by the Chinese or Egyptians. (I don’t know how the Egyptians or Chinese got there either. . .)

He had also searched the area for relics left by Native Americans, who lived in the area “much later.”

One granite stone that the group was shown by Raines was “definitely a Chinese carving”, he said, and was a Chinese cup carving, similar to the shape left by an ice cream scoop.

One of the other rocks in the vicinity had a carving on it that Raines said was the “key” to the ancient village, a circle and triangle – shaped carving.

He declared that this carving was the “only such carving ever found in California.”

The wall, Raines said was built by stacking square stones on top of one another made of several different types of rock.

The rocks showed signs of having been beaten into shape and “could have formed a prison,” Raines noted, adding there was nothing holding them up.

A smaller wall was found in another area, and Raines claimed it was also manmade, but came later.

In another area, below the Lake Isabella Dam the group viewed some rocks that had petroglyphs, also believed to be “Chinese or Egyptian.” My mother noted in the article that they were badly eroded.

Later the group drove down Kelso Road and viewed a smooth mound of dirt that Raines said was believed to be a “serpent mound” left by some Native Americans who lived in the area.

Raines said that plans had been started to excavate the mound to search for relics that were believed to have been buried there.

High above the mound at the top of the mountain the group could see a cave that Raines said was filled with pictographs, but the group decided that they were too tired to make the climb all the way up there.

I don’t recall this trip, it must have been one they went on when I was in high school.

There is no date with the article, but as I got older I was involved in “teenaged things” and didn’t go as much with them.

This trip and its findings sound rather odd to me, but I am not well-versed in ancient history of the Kern County area.

I looked up the history of the area and did find out that the Kawaiisu were very early inhabitants of the South Fork area.

Researchers found an obsidian tool dated at 3564.

This information came from the Audubon Society discussing the wildlife preserve in the area.

Who came first – the Native Americans or the Chinese? Or were there only Native Americans who left strange carvings?

I am sure some of you must know more than I do – since I know very little on the subject.

If you do, send me an email at The Loop Newspaper, or Facebook me, and we will continue the story in a future column.

Then we can all learn something more about the early residents of the South Fork and Weldon area.