When J.O. Langford homesteaded this section in 1909, he entered an area that had long been inhabited by Native Americans. Along this trail are pictographs and petroglyphs created by prehistoric people hundreds or even thousands of years ago. Pictographs are images painted onto rock, while petroglyphs are images carved or pecked into rock. Numerous red pictographs decorate the cliff face. Their red coloring came from hematite, a mineral sometimes called red ocher. In this area, cinnabar, or mercury ore, was also used to produce a maroon pigment. These pigments were usually mixed with a binder of blood, egg, or animal fat so they would adhere to the rock surface.