Off-road or Hike to Ancient Kumeyaay Winter Village Site, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California

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The Ancient Kumeyaay Winter Village Site is located along the 4WD Mine Wash Road in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California. Take a short stroll around a pile of boulders along Mine Wash Road and spot grinding holes among the rocks. Ethnographic data for the Kumeyaay and, in particular, the Kwaaymii Band, indicate that Indian people would have used Mine Wash and surrounding interior valleys for food procurement, ceremonies, and winter/spring settlement. The archaeological pattern in Mine Wash and environs shows a single relatively large occupation location with abundant cultural remains, a few smaller-sized encampments, and numerous isolated grinding/milling areas and roasting pits. Excavations conducted at the largest occupation site on Mine Wash yielded considerable evidence of plant-food processing, stone-tool manufacture and use, ceremonial activities, and participation in a wide-ranging trade network in Late Prehistoric times. Prehistoric settlement in and around Mine Wash is consistent with social and subsistence-related patterns identified in ethnographic accounts for this region. A sign at the Kumeyaay Village reads: "Native desert people have been attracted to the cave of this bouldered hillside for thousands of years. The last group to live here were the Kumeyaay (ku-may-eye), a nomadic people who lived off native plants and hunted game such as jackrabbits and bighorn sheep. They made camp here from October through May until the late 1800s. Walk a few yards ahead to the village site. See if you can find the large flat rocks which still show signs of seed grinding. Native women spent many hours upon these rocks working on the metates and in the deep morteros. Broken tools, pottery and bits of charcoal hold the story of a people who loved for centuries in the rock shelters of Mine Canyon. Please respect this ancient habitation site of those who came before us."

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