[2][6] Early inhabitants camped, built villages, and carved petroglyphs on boulders along the east shore of Lake Abert for approximately 11,000 years.

Over that long period of time, the area had one of the highest human occupation densities found anywhere in the northern region of the Great Basin.

In 1975 and 1976, David L. Cole and Richard M. Pettigrew of the University of Oregon conducted a second survey prior to a highway project to realign a section of U.S. Route 395, which runs along the eastern shore of Lake Abert.

The two archeological surveys identified a significant number of important cultural assets including house pits, domestic artifacts, petroglyphs, and pictographs.

This period is identified by the Great Basin stemmed projectile points found at the Initial Archaic sites.

[5] Because the prehistoric house pits and petroglyphs along the eastern shore of Lake Abert have great archeological value and are located on federal lands, they have been identified for protection.

Like most government-owned prehistoric cultural and rock art sites, the Lake Abert location is officially designated as an "Area of Critical Environmental Concern".

[11][12] Because of its cultural significance and unique archaeological value, the East Lake Abert Archeological District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on 29 November 1978.

[7][11] The Bureau of Land Management has mapped and documented the Lake Abert archeological sites to record its condition.

Volunteers from the Archaeological Society of Central Oregon help Bureau of Land Management cultural and law enforcement specialists monitor the site.

[13] The original archeological surveys located 32 prehistoric sites along a 12-mile (19 km) section of the eastern shore of Lake Abert.

This section of highway is located between the small unincorporated community of Valley Falls and the north end of Lake Abert.