The Whispering Woods - A Great Basin National Park Story

[Transcript]

Did you know, despite being the driest state in the U.S., over 60% of Nevada is used for grazing livestock? Ranching is so intertwined with the economy and history of this area, that for the first 12 years of Great Basin's national park status, grazing was actually allowed inside the park. Sheep herding in the Great Basin goes back to the late 1800s, and for many of the sheep herders, life was lonely. Perhaps no one knew that loneliness better than the Basques.

The Basques are an ancient indigenous group from the Pyrenees Mountains of Spain and France, and they have their own unique Uscara language and culture. In the mid-1800s, many young Basque men came to the American West during the gold rushes. But they eventually found more reliable work as sheep herders.

And it was a lonely life. Their camps consisted of just the sheep herder, a couple of dogs, and hundreds or even thousands of sheep. For up to four months at a time, the herders endlessly roamed in search of fresh grazing, completely isolated from human contact.

It was this loneliness and a desire for connection that drove the Basque sheep herders to leave their mark on the trees, known as arborglyphs. The soft white bark of an aspen tree, which can be bright and clean as paper, proved irresistible. Using just a pocket knife, they began carving names, dates, and images into the trees, leaving dark scars you can sometimes still see today.

The arborglyphs offered a creative outlet and connected them to the outside world and other herders who would follow. Imagine being alone for months and then coming across a message in the forest. It wasn't much, but it was also everything to the lonely sheep herders.

Some of the oldest carvings found in the park date to 1908, but many more were added later. Peruvian herders replaced the Basques in the 1960s and continued herding sheep and carving arborglyphs in the area until the 1990s. But despite innocent intentions, each arborglyph was actually a wound to the tree that created opportunity for disease.

Aspens usually only live around 100 years, and disease can drastically reduce that. Today, these carvings are important archaeological resources, documenting the area's cultural heritage. Great Basin National Park has tried to record every arborglyph they find before the aspens and the arborglyphs disappear forever.

As you explore these trails, keep your eyes peeled for messages in the forest. But please, do not add your own. We're here as observers, admiring history and nature as they are, but not seeking to change them.