Yakima Indian Painted Rocks
Indian Painted Rocks is a tiny state park (approximately 2,000 sq ft (200 m2)) right outside Yakima, Washington at the intersection of Powerhouse and Ackely Roads. The Indian rock paintings, also known as pictographs are on a cliff of basaltic rocks parallel to the current Powerhouse road which was once an Indian trail and later a main pioneer road that connected the Ahtanum valley to the Wenas mountains.
The paintings were originally thought to be only a few hundred years old but it is likely they are much older than that - possibly over 1000 years old. The pictographs were painted on the cliff when a prehistoric lake submerged the bottom. The natives painted the cliff from canoes using organic materials.
The rock paintings are stylized polychromatic paintings using white, red and black colors.
The state park was acquired from the Yakima Valley Canal Company in 1950.
A sign erected by the Washington State Highway Commission at the park's entrance states the following: Origin of these paintings is unknown to present day Indian tribes of this region. They are similar to many others found in western North America and are often interpreted as depicting religious experiences, as well as records of hunts or meetings with other tribes. This location was on the old Indian trail which ran from the Wenas Mountains to the Ahtanum bank of the Yakimas. In 1850's, miners enroute to British Columbia gold fields use the same trail. Later, as Americans settled the Yakima Valley, a stage coach route passed these cliffs.
In early 2007, the state parks department closed the Indian Painted Rocks park because of graffiti. There are plans to restructure the park in order to protect the painted rocks.
Read more about Yakima Indian Painted Rocks: Further Reading
Famous quotes containing the words indian, painted and/or rocks:
“Though I had not come a-hunting, and felt some compunctions about accompanying the hunters, I wished to see a moose near at hand, and was not sorry to learn how the Indian managed to kill one. I went as reporter or chaplain to the hunters,—and the chaplain has been known to carry a gun himself.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“What is a face, really? Its own photo? Its make-up? Or is it a face as painted by such or such painter? That which is in front? Inside? Behind? And the rest? Doesn’t everyone look at himself in his own particular way? Deformations simply do not exist.”
—Pablo Picasso (1881–1973)
“There is no pleasing New Englanders, my dear, their soil is all rocks and their hearts are bloodless absolutes.”
—John Updike (b. 1932)