Danger Cave State Monument
Exceptionally dry deposits near the Bonneville shoreline preserve evidence of repeated human use reaching back roughly thirteen thousand years.
Artwork inspired by Reuben Kirkham
Danger Cave’s dry sediments preserved plant fibers, food remains, tools, hearths, and other evidence across an extraordinary span of Great Basin history. Its importance comes from stratified context: where an object rested relative to other layers matters as much as the object itself.
The cave is normally visited through scheduled guided access rather than casual entry. Tours protect fragile deposits and explain excavation history, early Great Basin lifeways, and the changing shoreline of ancient Lake Bonneville.
- Record
- About 13,000 years
- Environment
- Dry Great Basin cave
- Access
- Guided events
Quick guide
- Primary evidence
- Stratified deposits ↔ Lake Bonneville context
- Do not omit
- Fiber preservation
Quick guide
- Reserve
- Confirm a scheduled guided tour before driving.
- Read layers
- Follow stratigraphy rather than isolated artifacts.
- Connect
- Look outward to Lake Bonneville shorelines.
- Protect
- Do not disturb sediment or collect anything.
Good to know
If time contracts at Danger Cave State Monument, keep the comparison between “Stratified deposits” and “Lake Bonneville context” and remove peripheral stops from the route.
Notice these
- Stratified deposits
- Lake Bonneville context
- Fiber preservation