151

XI. AN INDIAN TRAIL NEAR NEEDLES, CALIFORNIA

J. R. Weaver

Shell Development Company
Emeryville, California

The importance of trails to anthropologists is easy to understand:

they provide valuable clues related to the exchange of goods and cultures.
Because of their peculiarly perishable nature against the onslaught of the
vandal, the thoughtless, and the 4-wheeled "sport," it seems particularly
important that any authentic trail segment, regardless of its immediate
interest in relation to known major trails, should be described in some
detail.

The segment described here is near to, but apparently not a part of,
a very well known and important Indian footpath. In his thorough review

of the known trails in California, Davis (1961) shows one beside the Colo-
rado River along the entire length of the California-Arizona boundary.

Although the site is largely obliterated by the artificial lakes which have
been created along the river, its existence and importance are well docu-
mented (Bolton 1930; Sample 1950; Schroder 1952).

None of these authors mention the trail described here, so its des-
tination can only be surmised. A well-worn path across a rough, barren

region nearly devoid of springs must have been a link between more favorable
regions. Since the only favorable village sites in the entire area would be
on or near the Colorado River, it may be postulated that this was a route to
by-pass the Mohave Indian camps on the river.

The trail was discovered by the author quite accidentally, about 1926
or 1928. In 1965 it was relocated and studied in some detail. In 1966 the
site was visited for a third time in order to obtain photographs and to
verify certain details.

The site can be easily located with the aid of Map 1. The city of

Needles is situated on the banks of the Colorado River. Near the west end
of town, a road known to local residents as the "Eagle Pass Road" departs
from US Highway 66 in a southerly direction. The intersection is not con-
spicuous; the dirt road passes under a trestle of the AT&SF Railroad, tra-

verses a dump area, and then heads approximately southwest along the base of
the Sacramento Mountains. Although thie road does not appear on many maps,

the US Geological Survey Map, Needles Quadrangle, shows it as a "light duty"
road. The distance along this road, 2.9 miles (see map 1), is measured from

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153

the Santa Fe trestle and is fairly exact; the distances from the road to
the site are estimated from counted paces.

The trail segment is approximately straight, about one mile long,
and oriented north-northeast to south-southwest (magnetic) in an area

which is largely "desert pavement." It is quite conspicuous, as shown in
Plate 1. At both ends of the segment, the trail disappears into sandy
washes: the northern extension probably approaches the river without

emerging from the sandy wash; and it is quite likely that the trail crossed
the broad, sandy wash at the southern terminus and emerged again on to
higher ground beyond. This has not yet been determined.

Two things suggest that this may have been an important trail: (1)
the nature of "desert pavement" is such that a durable imprint of a trail

cannot be easily incised; and (2) the many petroglyphs along the way would
seem to indicate something concerning the number of persons who passed that
way.

An attempt was made to photograph all petroglyphs along the trail.

Perhaps it is significant that the most elaborate and abundant figures were
on large boulders near the northern (beginning?) end. Figures 1 and 2 show
sketches of the better petroglyph-. Because of their number, and because
some are located up to several yards away from the trail, some petroglyphs
may have been missed.   Many of the figures are beautiful examples of the

art; all are incised into well developed desert varnish on rhyolite porphory
boulders.

In addition to the petroglyphs, two other objects deserve mention.

Both are large rhyolite boulders which have been spalled extensively. One
is roughly conical in shape, 2 feet long, 1? feet across the circular base.
Nearly all of the desert varnish has been spalled off, except for a patch
on the base. In this patch is a shallow pit, clearly the result of human

agency. Certainly the spalling was also the result of human labor: but for
what purpose? The symmetrical nature of the residual boulder and the energy
expended in the act of shaping argue strongly against simple vandalism.

In October 1966, during an unsuccessful attempt to find a southern

extension of this trail, the author found thirty-seven potsherds in an area
approximately 3 by 15 feet at the extreme southern end of the trail. Many
had been well assimilated into the desert pavement. They appeared to have
originally formed a rather crudely made, buff-colored, undecorated cooking
vessel of the type called Tizon Brown.

154

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156

Plate 1. The Trail, Looking North

157

Bibliography

Bolton, H. E.

1930    Anza's California Expeditions.   Vols. 1 and 2.   Univ. Calif.

Press, Berkeley.

Davis, James T.

1961    Trade Routes and Economic Exchange Among the Indians of

California. Univ. Calif. Archaeol. Survey, Report 54.
Berkeley.

Sample, L. L.

1950    Trade and Trails in Aboriginal California.    Univ. Calif.

Archaeol. Survey, Report 8:1-30. Berkeley.

Schroder, A. H.

1952    A Brief Survey of the Lower Colorado River from Davis Dam

to the International Border.   National Park Service, Region
3. Reproduced by the Bureau of Reclamation.