Hidden Cave (Churchill County, Nevada)

Last year, I had attempted to visit this ancient Native American site just east of Fallon, NV, but unfortunately, the tour guide was unable to get the locked door to the cave open. As the Churchill County Museum offers this tour free of charge on the second and fourth Saturday of each month, I decided to give it another go and hope for better luck.

Arriving at the museum just before 9:30, the tour starts with a short (but well-produced) documentary viewing, which explains the origins and history of Hidden Cave. It is believed that the cave was formed by the now long-dry Lake Lahontan. Around 21,000 years ago, waves from the large lake gouged out the cave, which remained flooded for much of its history. Then about 4,000 years ago, the local ancient Native Americans began using the cave, not as a shelter, but for storage. Archaeological digs inside the cave have yielded a wealth of information about the peoples living in the area, including an abalone, which indicates that trade was occurring with coastal peoples. 

After the short video, we caravan out to the site and begin the short hike up to the cave. All along the way, the well-informed tour-guide stops to offer insight into the regions history, geology and plant-life. Overall, it makes for a very interesting experience.

Reaching the cave, our guide sets up a small generator to power the interior lights and we begin to shuffle through the entrance, something of a task for those of us not overly vertically challenged. The cave is filled with a pretty strong smell of ammonia, which as the tour guide explains, is the result of bat and rat guano and urine over the centuries. The cave itself has been preserved in a semi-excavated state to demonstrate how archaeologists perform digs of this nature. Ash layers in the cross-sections have been tested and found to be from well-known volcanic eruptions such as Mount Mazama (which formed Crater Lake). By correlating the dates of these eruptions, a rough time line of the various artifacts found in the cave can be arrived at. The guide points out several items as he continues the tour. 

After about 15 minutes inside the cave, we head out and return down the hillside to the gravel parking lot. The area around Reno is filled with history like this. It's simply a matter of getting out there to see it, and like this opportunity, I try to take full advantage of it.