Excavation of Tommy Tucker Cave, Lassen County, California

Abstract

The following is a brief account of the partial excavation of a cave on the east side of Honey Lake Valley, near Wendel in Lassen County, California. Although the materials recovered are not extensive, these notes seem warranted by the fact that this is the only dry cave archaeology done south of Oregon on this extreme western periphery of the Great Basin. Ninety miles to the east, work has been done in Lovelock Cave and Humboldt Cave. Some 150 miles north of our area the University of Oregon, under the direction of L. S. Cressman, has devoted nearly seven years (1935–42) to excavating the dry caves of south-central Oregon.Honey Lake is the remnant of the westernmost arm of extinct Lake Lahontan. Its surface is 3,950 feet above sea level at the present time. The lake is bounded on the northeastern corner by Hot Springs Peak, a mountain of Miocene volcanics. Tommy Tucker Cave, circa 200 feet above the valley floor, is a fissure on a fault line near the foot of this peak.