Petroglyph point

A petroglyph is a Native American writing in a rock.  Petroglyph means “rock picture” because petro means rock and glyph means picture so petroglyph. The petroglyphs are carved into a mountain that once was an island, the Klamath Falls area use to be a huge lake.  So the indians would paddle up to this giant island then and carve while in their boat.  Now they carved story’s into the stone that we cannot interpret.  However, the indians did have a belief on how this mountain was made.  They believe that” one day Kamookumpts was resting on the east shore of Tule Lake and he was looking around at his creation.  Then he realized that their was nothing anywhere.  So he scooped up some mud from the bottom of the lake and made an island.”

You can still see water marks from where the water was running.  Also people have gone up to the petroglyphs and: chipped them, painted them, and made their own carvings in the mountain.  The petroglyphs were created by a tribe of indians called the modoc indians.  That was the tribe that believed in Kamookumpts.  That tribe of indians was one of the only tribes in the valley until the U.S. Army got in a war with the indians called “The Modoc Indian War”.  The U.S. Army won and the Bureau of Reclamation  drained the land so that way only two lakes were there and gave the rest of the water to the farmers for crops.

Now the petroglyphs are fenced off and no one can mess with them anymore.  Of course their is still erosion happening and the petroglyphs will be gone eventually.  However, for now we can enjoy them as much as we like and no one can mess with them.  We should always cherish Oregon’s history.