Wagon Jack Shelter

The shelter takes its name from Wagon Jack, a Shoshone man who camped on this narrow flat below the cliff around 1900 while working a ranch at Eastgate and led the rabbit drives over in Smith Creek Valley. People sheltered here far longer than that—a brush-and-pole house stood on the flat some fifteen hundred years ago, and the ground yielded the distinctive arrowheads archaeologists named the Eastgate type, markers of time across the Great Basin. Excavation has carried off the rest; the bare flat under the rock is what remains.

What the plaque says

The ten foot wide flat at the base of the cliff is the site of Wagon Jack Shelter. The name comes from the Shoshone Indian, Wagon Jack, who camped here about 1900, while working on an Eastgate Ranch. He was a leader of Indian rabbit drives in Smith Creek Valley, just to the east. A brush and pole "house" was built on the flat about 1,500 years ago. The prehistoric remains, which were found here, are typical of most Great Basin people who subsisted on local deer, antelope, mountain sheep, small game, birds, seeds, nuts, and roots. Distinctive "Eastgate Series" projectile points found on this site have been valuable cultural indicators.

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Rock Creek (Cold Springs Station) — 6.3 mi
• Wonder — 15 mi
• Fairview (1905-1917) — 18 mi
• Edwards Creek Valley — 18 mi