Winnemucca Lake 'the oldest known petroglyphs found in North America.

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One of the coolest petroglyphs sites iv been to!

Winnemucca Lake is a dry lake bed that features the oldest known petroglyphs in North America. It is in northwest Nevada and sits astride the border between Washoe and Pershing counties.[1] Until the 1930s, it was a shallow lake, but was dried when a dam and a road were built that combined to restrict and block water flow. It was formerly designated as a National Wildlife Refuge, but its status as a refuge was removed due to the lack of water.

Winnemucca Lake is home to several petroglyphs long believed to be very old. In 2013, researchers dated the carvings to between 14,800 and 10,500 years ago. Either date would make them the oldest known petroglyphs found in North America. The carvings lie within the Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation.

Winnemucca Lake may have been dry when John Frémont came through in 1843–44.[6][7][8] Frémont's 1844 map indicates that he traveled to the west of Winnemucca Lake and does not map the Winnemucca Lake valley.[9] The Elko Free Press reports that there was a flood in 1862 that filled the lake to 80 feet (24 m), but Russell states that the level was low in 1862.[10]
In 1865, Winnemucca Lake (then known as Mud Lake) was the site of the Battle of Mud Lake where 29 soldiers from the 1st Nevada Volunteer Cavalry Battalion led by Captain Almond B. Wells (and two civilian guides) killed 29 Smoke Creek Indians. At least two of those killed were women, possibly more. Sarah Winnemucca wrote "I had one baby brother killed there. My sister jumped on father's best horse and ran away. As she ran the soldiers ran after her but thanks be to the Good Father in the Spirit land my dear sister got away. This almost killed my poor papa."[11]
The maximum level of the lake was 26 meters (85 ft) in the 1880s[7]
Winnemucca Lake was a shallow tule-filled lake and an important stop for migrating waterfowl. After the Derby Dam was built on the Truckee River in 1903 (the first project of the Reclamation Act), and State Route 447 (which blocked the slough connecting it to Pyramid Lake) was built, Winnemucca Lake dried out and has remained seasonally dry since the late 1930s.[12][13] In 1936, Franklin D. Roosevelt made an effort to rescue the lake and designated the area as the Winnemucca Lake National Wildlife Refuge.[citation needed] In 1962, the refuge designation was removed, making this area the first refuge designation lost because of lack of water.