Our position is a high point between two gulch systems. The creek at the bottom of the Leslie Gulch, and the path it creates toward the Owyhee River would make this passage a tempting one for large mammals.
We also know this part of Oregon was buffalo country, and that Native Americans moved into this part of the Great Basin during a world climatic shift that began about 6,000 years ago. The change meant vast marshes and generally wet conditions for this northern border of the Great Basin. Shoshone Indians began to populate the Owyhee by 5,000 years ago. Leslie Gulch was particularly suited for their lifestyle, and several petroglyph sites are found in the mazelike arroyos leading to the creek below.
Also, around 5,000 years ago, an 11,000 foot volcanic mountain in Oregon’s Cascade range blew its top, its cone sank into itself; and the ensuing destruction ravaged Oregon. Dozens of tribes were severely affected by the catastrophic event. The populating of the Owyhee may have been due in part to the disaster in Oregon’s greener side.
The Mount Mazama event, which created what we now call Crater Lake, occurred within about five-hundred years of the time of the Great Flood in the Middle East. I love biblical archaeology, so I always wonder about the geological claim that the flood in the Epic of Gilgamesh and the flood in the Bible may be the same event; the spilling of the Mediterranean into the Black Sea. Likewise, I wonder if people analyze Native American myths, and compare them to actual geological events.
Crater Lake NP, Oregon
