Sierra de las Uvas Wilderness - Wall

The wall

soapberry trees in the arroyo

 I spied this wall on Google Earth while looking for hiking route into the Uvas Mountains Wilderness from the northeast.  It piqued my curiosity right away, well, because man-made structures of any kind are not at all that common in the Sierra de las Uvas, and anything this substantial made with native rock, even less so. It would be a short hike from a well maintained road, so when I had little time one Sunday a few weeks, I went out.

 I parked right at the wilderness boundary and then off I went on sunny and warm autumn afternoon. I first approached it from above, walking along the stony ridge. My initial thoughts when seeing it in the satellite image was that it was a sheep pen or horse corral of some kind, but now looking at it in person, it seemed the space enclosed by it was too small to be of very much use.

 I circled down and around  and carefully climbed over a tumbled down section that sits on a slope on the south side. The intact part of the wall (which is most of it) was over 3 feet tall and made of dark volcanic rocks and boulders ranging, for the most part, from six inches to over two feet. Some boulders definitely looked too heavy for one lonely sheepherder or cowboy to move by themselves. 

The space inside was very limited as it was built very close to the cliff face behind which serves as  two of walls of the rectangle with the built wall approximating an "L" shape. The interior was very much on a slope as well which didn't seem particularly useful if bringing livestock inside. There was also no apparent opening to get in and out anywhere I could see, which really made wonder if this wall had any use for livestock at all.

 I climbed back and looked all around the immediate area for any kind of artifact laying around that might give my clue as to when it was built. Nothing. I even circled the area twice. I know that there are CCC erosion control projects nearby as well as a WW II bombing target, both of which may have something to do with this structure, but there was no obvious trail or road leading to it.

 I don't really know what it was for or when it was built. Folks who saw the images on Facebook all seemed to matter of factly decide it was for sheep. One even thought it might be a lambing pen. This may be the case, but I'm not so sure. As for the era, well, they were less sure about that, but I would think sometime before the widespread use of tin cans and glass bottles.