Historical Markers of Churchill County
 

  • HM 10 - Sand Mountain
  • HM 19 - Ragtown
  • HM 26 - Forty Mile Desert
  • HM 27 - Grimes Point (Prehistoric Rock Art Site)
  • HM 83 - Rock Creek (Cold Springs Station)
  • HM 110 - Wagon Jack Shelter
  • HM 111 - Edwards Creek Valley
  • HM 135 - New Pass Station
  • HM 147 - A Home of Early Man
  • HM 161 - Churchill County Courthouse
  • HM 178 - Hazen
  • HM 201 - Wonder (Historic Mining Camp -- 1909-1919)
  • HM 202 - Fairview (1905-1917)
  • HM 215 - Lahontan Dam
  • HM 216 - Stillwater
  • HM 263 - Oats Park School
  • HM 271 - Pony Express Trail
    (1860 - Sesquicentennial - 2010)
  • A Home of Early Man

    Location: Western Churchill County, 40 Mile District
    Directions: Junction of I-80 and US 95 at the Trinity Rest Area
    (Located 23 miles east of Fernley)

    N39° 56' 26.5"   W118° 44' 58.1"

    Location: 6
    Visibility: 1
    Accessibility: 1
    Marker type: St (L)
       

    Date Conquered: 8/14/07
    Quick Description: A marker noting Lovelock Cave and the ancient people who lived here.
    Signed: No -- This marker has never been signed.

    Full Description:
    Exact description as reads ...

    The elaborate map belonging to [147].
    These were the days when state budgets could allow for such things.

    Stretching before you are two vast sinks, terminal areas of the Humboldt and Carson River drainage systems. The marshy remnant of Lake Lahontan, between you and the distant Humboldt range, served as a life sustaining resource of wildlife for prehistoric man who lived by its shores. Generations occupied caves located on the lower slopes of the distant range.

    Scientific archeological excavation reveals that Lovelock and Ocala Caves served as homes to man from 2,000 B.C. to about 1840 A.D. What he left behind tells of a successful adaptation of his culture to a lakeside environment.

    Nearby Leonard Rock Shelter, with human occupancy dating from 5,000 B.C., is a National Historic Landmark.

    The bleak view from [147] is quite deceiving! The hills in the b.g. were home to some of Nevada's earliest human inhabitants. Today, the sites of these federally-protected habitats can be still be accessed via long dirt roads from the interstate.

    A better location for this marker would be a few miles east of here alongside I-80 - an ideal vantage point to the cave's location.

    Next: [148] Site Homepage Contact

    Partnered with

    Great Basin Wilds Photography
    Copyright © Paul Sebesta

    Fact #147: The Marzen Museum in Lovelock houses a very mysterious skull belonging to a "Red Headed Giant" unearthed around 1947.