The Hospital Rock pictograph site in Sequoia National Park is openly advertised as a point of interest by the National Park Service, and thus is well worth visiting if you’re headed to the Park. The pictographs are enormous and striking.
This site, like most along the upper Podwisha river, is a Western Mono site. The Western Mono originated on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada, and crossed the crest during a period of extended drought, probably around 890 A.D, in search of better conditions. They settled the higher slopes of the Sierra Nevada, trading with the Central Valley Yokuts as well as the Eastern Mono.
Hospital Rock was a habitation site, as evidenced by the bedrock mortars close by and the soot deposits in nearby shelters. Archaeological evidence suggests that it may have been settled by 1350, though of course that does not mean the pictographs are anywhere near that age.
The site was named for the fact that an explorer, John Swanson, injured his leg in 1860 while in the area, and was treated by the Western Mono at this site. Thirteen years later James Everton was injured by a bear snare and treated at the same site. This was apparently enough to make the name stick!
There’s also evidence that two shaman brothers lived at the site in the latter half of the 1800’s, and painted some if not all of the pictographs at the site. There is certainly evocative entoptic and shamanistic imagery at the site to help support this.
Let’s take a look!
The site is painted on one of the flat surfaces created when this boulder split. That is a huge boulder, by the way – more than 30 feet tall.
Nearby is a outcropping with many bedrock mortars. This was a village site, too.
There’s a thin ledge that you can scramble up to see the panel square on. It’s a long way down from here, but the view is worthwhile.
The panel is streaked with smudged pigment and washed away in parts but what remains is spectacular. Many of these elements are similar to ones at the Potwisha site or the High Sierra Meadows site.
Much of the panel is well-preserved, but parts are very faded. These elements are painted up high, emerging from a crack. This is similar to the “Bee’s Knees” site, and may depict a vision quest. Shamans believed the spirit world was accessible through cracks in the rock, and they would paint wards or helper elements at these cracks.
Even with DStretch we can’t quite tell what’s going on with this panel, but it looks like several figures were painted emerging from this crack.
Here’s a part of the panel where rain has washed away almost all the pigment.
The zig-zag elements, seen on the very left, could be depictions of a rattlesnake – a common shaman’s spirit helper. It looks like the elements in the lower part of this panel were detailed Linear elements at one point.
Let’s return to the main panel. It is hard to examine since the colors are vivid and faded in the same area, so DStretch easily bleeds out some elements yet is needed to show others. This desaturated image is an attempt to find a middle ground. We can see another zig-zag rattlesnake at the very left, anthropomorphs, bursts, and various other elements, all painted in red.
A better look at the left-hand side.
The center part of the panel with almost all color removed.
A faded part of the panel, lower center.
Still some elements to be seen if you use DStretch!
If you’d like to visit, head on over to Sequoia National Park. The site is close by the road, with parking, picnic area, and an interpretive display. It is a very short walk to see it. Make sure to respect the site though – take only photos, leave only footprints, as the saying goes.
Wow. Dstretch is amazing. Ill have to look up what it is
It really is amazing! DStretch.com -> Jon Harman developed it, and there is an app available for it now, which is what I now use out in the field. I still use a desktop version with more options for the photos I process for these writeups.