Rock Shelter - Indiana County

Spent the day exploring the woods of Indiana County - with Bill Carney (who found this shelter) and Indian Expert Butch Laney. This picture was taken by Bill.

There they are with the shelter behind them.

The scale of this structure is very misleading from my photo - because at it's highest point - the inside height hits about 10 feet.

From a slightly different angle with the sapling out of the way. There are drill marks on the right hand side wall which is one of three interesting features.

I should have knocked the flash off - but sometimes I forget about the tech end of things because I get so excited. The school of thought is that this might represent Orion the Hunter. Also note two things - there is an outline of a red arrow on the bottom hole along with what looks like green coloring in sections. Now it could simply be a case of algae buildup for the green - but how to you explain the red arrow. I can even compare it (this is my photo)

And this is Bill's - two different camera's - same red arrow.

Closeup - so is it natural or made by man? You be the judge.

We cleaned one hole out

Sorry - the close up is a bit on the soft side.

Following along on the inside - at shot of a section of roof - small rocks jammed in around the top and there is a small hallway type space - that you can just barely make out on the right hand side.

A section of wall - right before the hallway

Looking inside the hallway. It's small in terms of our modern age - but if I was skinnier - I would have had no problem squeezing in there.

Debris litters the floor - some of it looks like possible artifacts to me

The backend of the hallway

Closeup - some of the stones look worked to fit perfectly together

More debris and possible artifacts

Taking a look at the second interesting feature. This section of the roof slab has tally marks.

Another look - what's really strange is that some are carved into the rock - while others are carved out of the rock

As you can see from one of Bill's shots - the marks go both in and out

There are also bits of fossil in the stone here and there - but some almost look like they could be carvings instead

Another section of the ceiling

Now to the third interesting feature - this space at the end - it's not the space itself but what's behind it on the other end - but before we head there

 A shot of some of the debris in this section - again some of it looks like possible artifacts to me

This rainspout like feature directly behind the opening is pure genius

Looks to me that if it was a light rain - some of the water would indeed go into the hole

But the runoff from a major thunderstorm would simply shoot past the hole - keeping everyone inside dry

This is the back end of it - over 35 feet up at this point - looks like a manitou stone poking out

This is located on the backend of the structure

There are also a set of holes in this area

Closeup

This is Blacklick Creek and the rock shelter and a few more possible shelters are located high above this ravine

On the way out - I spotted this simple rock on rock. I know there is more to be found in this area - trouble is - it's very rough terrain - considering it's chocked full of glacier debris and climbing sides of ravines is mighty hard work. But I'm sure there will be more discoveries coming out of this area of Indiana County.