Horsethief Butte

Horsethief Butte Trail-
A living Monument of the past, present, and future
Horsethief butte
For centuries, the area around Horsethief Butte was the site of a Native American village, now flooded by the waters of the The Dalles Dam. In 1972 the “Wishram Indian Village Site”, otherwise known as Horsethief Lake State Park, was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

• Geologists say between 13,000 and 15,000 years ago a series of huge catastrophic floods scoured this landscape. Surging water and large pieces of ice ripped rock, sediment, and soil from everything that surrounds you. Horsethief Butte withstood the floods.
Horsethief Butte rises from the shores of the Columbia, a monument to 300 generations of fishers and traders who claimed a plentiful living for Nch'i-Wána, the Big River. At its base, village life moved to the rhythm of changing seasons and returning salmon.
Enjoy Horsethief Butte. Respect it. Keep it beautiful and intact for those who follow. Let your legacy be the reverence and preservation of a very special place.
“She Who Watches”, Petroglyph, Horsethief Lake Park (Columbia Hills State Park)

Perhaps the most well-known of all Washington petroglyphs is the large face known as Tsagiglalal, the Wishram word translated as "She who watches all who are coming and going". This anthropomorphic face is lightly pecked through the oxidized surface of the rock. Two other petroglyphs are noted here. One is an owl figure, shallowly pecked, and the other, possibly non-aboriginal, is an anthropomorphic face. Red and white pictographs are also present with both pigments sometimes present in a single figure. About 75 individual pictographs were found. A number of arcs and concentric circles with rays are present. Other figures include a "rabbit-eared" anthropomorph with detailed face and holding bow and arrow, two owl-like faces, four point stars, a large anthropomorphic face in red and white with alternating red and white zig-zag lines extending from top of head, and a few simple anthropomorphs. At the extreme north end of the site is a lizard figure. Other zoomorphic figures, including one or two quadrupeds exist