|
Wilson Butte Cave
|
|
|
Wilson Butte Cave appears as an air bubble in a sea of lava
|
|
| Nearest city: | Hunt, Idaho in Jerome County |
|---|---|
| Governing body: | Bureau of Land Management |
| NRHP Reference#: | 74000741[1] |
| Added to NRHP: | November 21, 1974[2] |
Wilson Butte Cave is located on the Snake River plain in Jerome County northeast of Twin Falls and southeast of Shoshone. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places as an archaeology site, it is maintained by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
A round bubble in appearance, it pops up from a flat wide bed of ancient basalt lava. An inflationary or liftup cave is inside the bubble. While archaeologists are uncertain of exact dates prior to 10,000 years ago, evidence has been found that native peoples lived here at least 10,000 years ago. Artifacts found here provide the oldest evidence of human presence on the Snake River Plain and are among the oldest such evidence in all of North America.[3][4] Archaeologists are fairly certain that the reason the cave was settled so early is that it was used as base from which to hunt bison.[3] Strong connections have been found to the Fremont culture and the Shoshone people, which lived there after the Fremont peoples.[5] Vegetation in the region is very similar to modern times. Camels and giant ground sloths once roamed this region.[6] Deposits here are believed to have been undisturbed until amateurs discovered them in 1958. Two of the major excavations of the cave were conducted by teams lead by archaeologist Ruth Gruhn; one in 1959-1960 and one in 1988-1989. Gruhn dates the site's earliest occupation to 14-15,000 years ago.[7]
The lava of the area is a dark gray to black fine grained basalt. The cave is in a lava tube developed in a pressure ridge in the flowing lava. The source of the lava is Wilson's Butte which is about one half mile SE of the cave. The lava is more than 15,000 years old as determined by radiocarbon dating of a camel bone from within a lava tube cave. The bone had tool markings indicating working by humans.[8]