Hickison Summit

Before any of the mining, there was this pass. A mile northwest, between two low buttes, three panels of petroglyphs are pecked into the rock above a natural gap that migrating deer funneled through — and that hunters, the marker suggests, used to ambush them. The figures were likely added a little at a time, season by season, as ritual marks meant to bind the hunt to a good outcome. Their precise meaning is lost; their purpose, on a game trail like this one, is not hard to read.

What the plaque says

About one mile northwest lies a natural pass between two low buttes which, prehistorically, the aborigines may have used as a site of ambushing migratory deer herds. Three petroglyph panels are located in this pass. Concerted, cooperative efforts of several families were necessary for successful trapping, killing and processing the deer. Petroglyphs suggest magical or ritual connection with hunting activities. They were added seasonally by the group's religious leader, or shaman, as omens to insure a successful hunt. State Historical Marker No. 137 Nevada State Park System Austin Chamber of Commerce LMK 12-10-81

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Hickison Petroglyphs — 9.9 mi
  Western Shoshone rock art cut into soft white tuff at a 6,500-foot summit — the easiest rock art to meet on the loneliest road
• Austin — 18 mi
  A silver boomtown that hit ten thousand and fell to under two hundred — the living ghost town at the high middle of US-50

More markers nearby

• Toquima Cave — 11 mi
• The Surveyors — 14 mi
• Reuel Colt Gridley “Citizen Extraordinaire” — 17 mi
• Austin Churches — 18 mi