Trip Report

On May 26, 1990, fifteen Obsidians and fourteen guests traveled to Klamath Falls and Northern California to view ancient Indian Rock Paintings and visit the Lava Beds National Monument. Don Hann, archaeologist from the University of Oregon was our guide.

On Saturday we drove via Highways 58 & 97 to Klamath Falls with a sack lunch at Hagelstein Park. We visited the excellent Klamath Falls Museum. This provided orientation for the 2-day trip. We drove to view impressive Indian Petroglyphs on the south "shore" of now drained Tule Lake called Prisoners Rock and the Peninsula. We had dinner at the "Norths" and after dinner Don Hann gave a splendid discussion about Petroglyphs from Oregon, California and Mexico. He presented slides from these areas.

The second day we drove to the Lava Beds National Monument Visitors Center. This area of Oregon and Northern California had been inhabited for thousands of years by the "Ancients" and then the Modoc Indians. At the center there were splendid displays on pre-history, also two excellent slide presentations: one on the Modoc Indian War and one on Indian Petroglyphs.

We had our sack lunch at Captain Jack's Stronghold. Here in 1873 fifty or sixty Modoc Indians held off the U.S. Army troops, twenty times their number, for five months. There was an excellent brochure to guide members of our group to walk a trail through this still wild area. Lava Tube Caves were also explored and birds were viewed in the Wild Life Sanctuary. It was a splendid trip and learning experience.

Participants on this trip were Roxanne Bodine, Keith and Fay Bidderman, Hal Busby, Larry Betterton, Bernice Claypool, Jane and John Corliss, Thelma Collins, Marjory Calpetts, Ardis Ebbighausen, Elizabeth Fox, Thelma Fraser, Evelyn Hile, Ralph and Wilma Howorth, Herman Hendershott, Rosella Jones, Martha Keosey, Helen Knowlton, Virginia Kapsa, Mary McLauglin, Cleona Mersdorf, Mary Merrett, Lin Pierce, Bonnie Rickard, Karen Seidel, and Bobbye Sorrels with tour leader Jennelle Moorhead.