Ancient Alien Visit? You Be the Judge!

Houston, do we have aliens? Oh wait, Wyoming, do we have aliens? Copyright WyoJones. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

Pausing this “Taking the Scenic Route” post to wish my dad a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Okay, now back to business: our Scenic route this week takes us through Legends Rock State Petroglyphs Site in Wyoming. The hubs was there in 2011 and has this to say about his visit:

“Legend Rock State Petroglyph Site, Hot Spring County, Wyoming, USA:

Legend rock is not a single rock but a 100 foot cliff of ledgy Cretaceous Sandstone that rises over the small but flowing Cottonwood Creek on the western side of Wyoming’s Big Horn Basin. The site contains some of the oldest rock art found in North America.

Scattered along an area over 800 yards long there are over 300 petroglyphs that archaeologists now believe range in date from about 11,000 years ago to perhaps the mid-19th century. These carved images are carved the desert varnish, a mixture of iron and manganese oxides, on the stone’s surface because both stone.

Some of the petroglyphs nearly blend into the desert varnish because over the millennia the minerals have also precipitated on them. This patina enables scientists to estimate the date of the carvings. An etched handprint found at the site has been dated at 10,700 years ago, with an error range of plus or minus 1,400 years.

Adjacent engravings are dated to about 6,800 years ago. The image shown in the photo is called “the alien” by the students I have taken there. There are not many figures that look like this at this site. I have seen similar figures at other rock art sites in American west.

The fact that the etching itself is covered with desert varnish indicates that it is one of the older images at the site.The art here is defined as being Dinwoody in style which is found only in Wyoming.

At the time the Europeans arrived the native peoples in the area were the Shoshone. It is believed that they or their predecessors may have made some of the art at Legend Rock. Traditionally, the Shoshone believe the images were not made by humans but by the spirits they not only represent but embody. In this context, the chipped forms offer vital portals to other realities.

Archaeologist Larry Todd said “Much like visiting a cathedral, a visit to Legend Rock is likely to inspire a certain sort of respect and sense of awe, even though you may not be of the particular religion that made it.” (Billings Gazette, Sunday 23, 2010)

A National Historic Site since 1973, Legend Rock is only beginning to be deciphered by archaeologists and scientists working with the peoples who have long revered it. Together with many other rock-art locations across the western US, it demonstrates that America has a rich and ancient cultural history. Moreover, Legend Rock is linked by technique and imagery to sites around the world—Twyfelfontein in Namibia, Ningxia in China, and Alta in Norway, to name a few—all made by burgeoning human populations after the glaciers receded and the modern world began to take shape.”

If you click on the link to the park, you’ll see more of their crazy, rock art in the hubs photos. And you gotta love the hubs for searching out aliens photos for me. 🙂 I mean, how cool is that?

When I was writing Tangled in Time, I found some similar petroglphys here in Texas and of course, we also have Marfa. So, do you believe? Not believe? Did aliens visit back then? Or was it just crazy hard to draw anything in rock? Think my hubs is a cool dude (you’d be right!).

Perilously–and kind of edging toward believing–yours,

Pauline

Want more aliens, but not the kind that want to take over our world and turn us into a food group? May I suggest feeding your interest with books? My Project Enterprise series rife with aliens and there are even space battles.