Paisley again on the right with the Coglans in the distance -- about 7-8 miles away.
Toward the northeast there is more desert ringed with mountains. The light grey “lump” just below the skyline on the left is Five Mile Butte. As the name implies, it is about 5 miles from Paisley. There are 4-5 caves on the butte and so the buttes are also called Paisley Caves. They are significant because a few years ago some coprolite with human DNA was discovered there and was carbon dated to about 17000 years old. This is some of the oldest evidence of human habitation in this part of the country and is well before the end of the last ice age. (Google “Paisley Caves”)
The caves are thought to have been formed by wave action of Lake Chewaucan. (Google “Lake Chewaucan”) Lake Chewaucan streached from Abert Rim to the north end of Summer Lake - about 480 square miles. The base of the caves is about 4520 feet and the valley floor is about 4100 feet. Traces of shorelines can be seen on the mountains sides for various lake depths.
This last photo is looking north to the end of the Summer Lake Valley. The skyline is about 35 miles away. Winter Ridge is on the left and Summer Lake is at the base. The white area just below the rim is alkali.
A couple of weeks ago my Aunt Ellen took me to a place a couple of miles north of Paisley Caves and showed me some snail and clam shells that were left from the Lake Chewaucan.
Some days later Ellen, I, and Mark Swisher, an amateur geologist, went in search of some fish fossils. By amateur I mean someone who is very knowlegable. He and Ellen had a report that showed an approximate location for some fossils. We calculated the latitude and longitude and set off with a GPS. We found a place where erosion had exposed a layer of shells and some fossilized fish parts – fins, gill covers, vertebrae and maybe scales. One of Mark’s friends identified the fossils as teleost’s and are thought to be about 25 million years old. This location was about a half mile from our calculated site so we're thinking there may be several sites at this elevation that have eroded enough to expose fossils.
The first “wild” fossils I’ve found. How exciting.
