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Cultural ResourcesSummary Table | Historic Trails Map
Cultural resources are identified as areas of human activity, occupation, or use that portray significant history and culture. Resources are divided into three groups; prehistoric, historic and traditional resources. These resources consist of materials, structures and natural areas used, built or modified before or after the presence of Euro-Americans. Prehistoric and historic sites include rock art, campsites, rock shelters, scatters of stone tool-making debris, homesteads, mining sites, abandoned communities and agricultural features. Traditional sites include places associated with the cultural practices or beliefs rooted in a community’s history. Examples include places used for ceremonies and worship, and established locations used for hunting and fishing. The Pocatello Field Office has approximately 994 cultural resource sites recorded on its public lands. Many of these are historic sites that date back to the late 18th and early 19th centuries and reflect the development of transportation, fur trapping, mining, agriculture, and settlement of this region by the Euro-Americans. However, archaeological research in southern Idaho indicates that initial occupation of the region originated 10-12,000 years ago by the Native American Indians. The majority of prehistoric sites in the area include lithic scatters (chipped stone flakes remaining from the making of stone tools), quarry sites, rock shelters, rock structures, petroglyphs and a few pictographs. One of the important prehistoric sites of the region is the Indian Rocks area, located between the Portnuef River and Marsh Creek. This site contains lithic American Indian Rock, and has been designated by BLM as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) to recognize and protect its unique cultural resource values. Other important historic sites within the Pocatello Field Office include portions of three emigrant trails that are part of the National Historic Trail System: the Lander Trail, Big Hill on the Oregon Trail, and the Hudspeth Cutoff for the California Trail. These trail segments have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. During historic times, the Oregon Trail passed northward through the Portneuf Valley to Ross Fork and Fort Hall. The abandoned community of Chesterfield was founded here in the 1880s and is now a National Historic District of 40 structures maintained by a private foundation. Another interesting site is Register Rock, located near American Falls, which contains the carved names of emigrants who passed on the Oregon Trail.
Pocatello Field Office | 4350 Cliffs Drive | Pocatello, ID 83204
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The Pocatello Field Office and the lands of Southeast Idaho have a rich historic cultural past that reflects the long prehistoric use of the area. The Pocatello region is laden with cultural resources that serve as a guide, showing us how the lands were once utilized.