What's for Dinner: Hot Rock Plant Baking on the Desert National Wildlife Refuge

Join us as we welcome Fish & Wildlife Archaeologist Spencer Lodge for a presentation about Native American roasting pits in Southern Nevada.

Southern Paiute groups throughout the Mojave Desert baked plants such as agave and yuccas in large communal earth ovens, transforming these otherwise inedible plants into nutritious foodstuffs. Known locally as roasting pits, these features are found throughout the Sheep Range on the Desert National Wildlife Refuge. 

Due to their size and a color change in local rock after exposure to high temperatures, more than 200 roasting pits were visible using Google Earth and 193 were subsequently recorded in the field. This talk will provide an overview into earth oven plant baking, as well as the results of fieldwork and research conducted from 2012-2015.

We see you there!

Every first Thursday of the month, Friends of Nevada Wilderness hosts a local environmental expert at REI Boca Park in their Community Room. Doors open at 6:45 giving you enough time to socialize and grab a snack before the presentation begins at 7 pm.

Please join us at REI Boca Park every first Thursday for a new speaker every month!