Lagomarsno Canyon Petroglyphs (Storey County, Nevada)

When I first heard of the existence of prehistoric rock art so close to my home, I instantly wanted to visit and see this small window into the past. Lagomarsino Canyon is about thirty miles East of Reno and about twelve miles North-East of Virginia City, but that is not to say it is easy to get to. Some of the roughest roads I have ever encountered must be traversed to reach this canyon. Only through my friend Jason’s skilled driving and his fiancée’s 4X4 were we able to reach this location.

While there are a number of stone walls scattered along the hills here, the petroglyphs themselves are scratched into the large basalt boulders of a cliff on the North side of the canyon. From what I am told this short, but jagged cliff was used by Native Americans to run game to their deaths. It seems perfect for that purpose.

According to a sign at the base of the cliff, many of the primitive motifs appear to be 4,000-5,000 years old, but some may be as old as 10,000 years. There are many recurring themes: wavy lines, geometric patterns, and wild life. By doing some very basic rock climbing, we are able to see nearly one hundred images.

As with anything of this nature, the explorer cannot help but ask some basic questions: Why were these drawn? By who? And what were the artists like? Perhaps, they were drawn by mere children, trying to express themselves or perhaps, by a group of men who had not yet found their place in the world and were simply trying to tell future generations that they had existed. We may never know for sure, but I suspect their purpose for creating such marks in time may not be much different than our own.