Friday

Pauline Mine Road Petroglyph Pictures

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Area Description: About a mile and a half hike up Pauline Mine Road at the base of the Potosi Mountain Range in the north western corner of Goodsprings valley, there is a large sandstone monolith outcrop (Fig. 01). Surrounded by desert plain on all sides, it stands out like a sore thumb. Located on its north east corner, relatively close to the ground (Fig. 02) are a series of petroglyphs and pictographs that run for more than 75 feet.
Petroglyph Information: As this is the only patina covered sandstone in the area, one has to assume that it was the geologic structure itself that drew some persons from an ancient culture to stop and peck messages into its patina covered faces. It is interesting though, considering its overall size, that only one small portion of this enormous monolith contains any glyphs. In researching the Internet, I haven’t even been able to find a single mention of these petroglyphs. Just about all of them are void of any anthropomorph (human) or zoomorphs (animal) figures. Though it is only a guess based upon my readings, the two symbols in (Fig. 03) may be representative of some type of tribal shield. Other that this, the remainder of the panels (Figs 04-06) are truly abstract in nature. Unfortunately, the pictographs in (Fig. 07), that were located in the northern most end near a cave like area, are so faded that it is nearly impossible to identify anything.
                                                     
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