Hogup Cave (42BO36)

About this property

Hogup Cave is a two-chambered limestone cavern, and an important, well-studied prehistoric Great Basin site in Utah. Hogup Cave is located on the southwestern flank of Hogup Mountain in the Great Salt Lake Desert. The Great Salt Lake itself lies ten miles east of the cave. Hogup Mountain consists of three biotic zones determined by soil, altitude, and moisture. The lowest zone, known as the pickleweed-salt grass community, is a narrow band where sheep herders have excavated several wells, revealing the presence of groundwater. The presence of a deep spring suggests that this zone may have been used as a water source for the cave occupants. The dominant coverage of the entire Hogup Mountain is the sagebrush-shadscale belt which is the next zone. The top zone, the juniper zone, occurs only at the mountain's highest elevations. The highest point of Hogup Mountain is at 6847 ft. The actual location of the cave is 41°22'14.6"N 113°15'22.1"W C. Melvin Aikens, professor emeritus at the University of Oregon, led the excavations in Hogup Cave during two field seasons: June 26 - August 15, 1967, and June 15 - August 20, 1968. According to Aikens, the main purposes of the excavations were to provide data for the study of changing patterns of cultural ecology over time, and to contribute to the solution of several problems of cultural history in the Great Salt Lake region. Over 8,000 years of accumulated deposits from repeated human occupation were found, dating from 6400 B.C. to as late as 1850 A.D when it was used by the Shoshone as a camping ground to make seasonal rounds. An archaeological monograph was published in 1970 by Aikens entitled Hogup Cave, containing a detailed analysis of nearly 10,000 artifacts recovered during the two excavations. Numerous bones, wood, hide, cordage, fibers, textile items, chipped stones, clay, pottery, coprolites, hair, feathers, and fur were analyzed. Trench excavations of the east and west walls of the cave revealed 16 major sequential stratigraphic layers. Aikens noted that the stratigraphy revealed the modifications done by the purposeful movements of the cave occupants. He also provided detailed descriptions of the individual strata. Continuous over all squares excavated and laying directly on bedrock, it ranged between 1 and 3 inches thick vertically. It had a composition of light yellow crumbly dust with rotted vegetal matter. A powdered charcoal lens of about 6 to 8 inches in diameter was found on the surface of the layer near the north end of the excavation. Only found in a small area against the east wall and in a low spot along the western boundary of excavation, it ranged between 4 and 6 inches thick. Composed of dark brown crumbly earth arising from decomposed vegetal matter, there were no cultural features found in this stratum.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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