Overview

The White River Narrows Archeological District is an area of outstanding petroglyphs that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. There is one major site (Amphitheater) and four minor sites (Calendar Fence, Martian Home, Cane Site A, and Ash Hill) in this area.

Calendar Fence Site is a small site composed of one long horizontal line with a multitude of short vertical lines rising up from the horizontal line (the fence), and a short oval-shaped loop that hangs below the fence. There are a couple of other marks on the stone, but they might be recent additions. There is graffiti, but no other petroglyphs in the immediate area.

The BLM and Lincoln County opened this area to the public. The BLM printed a single-sheet flier, and Lincoln County printed a 55-page brochure with information about the site (including GPS coordinates) as part of their Get Primitive tourism campaign. Download the brochure from Lincoln County or snatch a copy here.

Location

The White River Narrows Archeological District is located about 131 miles north of Las Vegas along Highway 318. For location details and waypoints, see White River Narrows Archeological District overview. When driving in from the pavement, Calendar Fence is the first site along White River Narrows Road. Stay off these unpaved roads if they are muddy.

Link to Map.

The Solstice Calendar

As the sun moves across the sky on the summer solstice (June 20 or 21 depending on the year), a shadow-dagger stabs down across the rock face towards the calendar fence. At the same time, a shadow from the main cliff on the left moves to the right across the rock face shading the fence pickets one after another. At exactly the solstice, the shadow-dagger from above stabs the fence just as the right-moving shadow merges with the shadow-dagger to form a single shadow.

In a peculiar fashion, as the shadow continues to move across the rock face, and just before the entire rock is shrouded in shadow, a dagger of light seems to arise from the ground and points to the oval-shaped loop. More research is needed.

View a time-lapse sequence of about 60 still images that were used to create a short YouTube video of the solstice event.