Giant Desert Figures

Giant Desert Figures is a California Historical Landmark in Riverside County.

Riverside County · Highway 95, 18 miles north of Blythe · location approximate

Directions to the area ↗Start a road trip Historical trails

Times of origin and meaning of these giant figures, the largest 167 feet long, smallest 95 feet, remain a mystery. There are three figures, two of animals and a coiled serpent, and some interesting lines. (Sandstone pebbles glazed on one side with "desert varnish" are strewn over the surface of the mesa and have been moved away, leaving the earth forming the figures, the pebbles being placed in windrows about the edge as an outline.)

1971 register text, presented as a historical document. It uses the period's terms for Native people; the state's landmark listings still carry most of this wording, and the California Office of Historic Preservation maintains the program's current texts.

Many of these plaques have since been recast or their texts revised. The California Historical Landmarks program and its current texts are maintained by the California Office of Historic Preservation. California Office of Historic Preservation ↗

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Example

under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s

what this marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years here

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Marker data: State of California, Department of Parks and Recreation, California Historical Landmarks (1971)

Giant Desert Figures

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