Areas around the Park

As we were driving around the area of Baker late Sunday afternoon, we came across the park Visitor Center. It had already closed when we arrived, and we never quite remembered to visit it again. It seemed small but quite nice and modern. However, just up the road a bit was the Lehman Caves Visitor Center. Lehman Caves is one of the big attractions for the park, and its visitor center was much larger and grandiose--with a restaurant, gift shop, information area, and exhibit area (and bathrooms!).

The best thing about this larger visitor center was that it was elevated, uphill in the park itself, and had tremendous views looking out over the Great Basin. I spent a lot of time sitting on its front porch, enjoying the view. It also had several trails and areas to hike, including a star-watching theater (with very good bird-watching).

As we were approaching the park entrance, we noticed a sign next to a back road that indicated the "Baker Archaeological Site" (Baker Village). According to the National Park Service, the village contains the remains of a Fremont Indian village dated 1220 to 1295 CE. "The Fremont lived in this well planned community of several small pit houses and granaries, surrounding a main big house, and practiced a form of agriculture."

We immediately turned down the dead-end road and drove to the site. You could see outlines of where the pit houses were, and we walked all around the area (the remains that are above ground are modern, not original; the original site was buried again after it was first excavated). I would like to find time to gather more detail about the Fremont Culture. I wonder what they would have grown in this climate, what their lives were like, who they traded with or who their enemies were. And why were they here for such a short period of time?

And looming over it all were the great mountains of the Great Basin National Park.