Nevada Caves and Karsts

Hidden Cave Archaeological Area

Hidden Cave is an archaeological site located seven miles east of Fallon, Nev., on the north side of U.S. Highway 50.  The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, as part of Grimes Point.

The cave was formed 21,000 years ago by the waves of Lake Lahontan, an ancient lake of the Pleistocene epoch.  While the cave was used at various times for thousands of years by people, the first documented, modern encounter with the cave was in the mid-1920s, when four school boys found it.

Hidden Cave has been excavated by archaeologists three times: once in 1940, again in 1951, and finally a large excavation in 1979-1980 by the American Museum of Natural History.  A high proportion of the artifacts found in Hidden Cave were unbroken and arranged in concentrations.  That led to the conclusion that 3,500 to 3,800 years ago, people used the cave as a cache.

Hidden Cave remains closed to the public and all tours have been cancelled until further notice.