The dry environment of the cave resulted in a wealth of well-preserved artifacts that provide a glimpse on how people lived in the area.

The initial discoveries of artifacts and excavations, in the early 20th century, were not very well executed, which resulted in a loss of archaeological information.

A wealth of knowledge pertaining to life on the Great Basin has come from this important site because many unique artifacts have been successfully recovered.

In 1911 two miners, David Pugh and James Hart, were hired to mine for bat guano from the cave to be used as fertilizer.

The first exploration was unsystematic and the loss of material and damage to the site strata was considerable in large portions of the cave.

Loud of the Anthropology Department at the University of California was contacted by the mining company when the refuse left by the ancient people proved so plentiful that fertilizer could no longer be collected.

Kroeber sent L. L. Loud, an employee of the Museum of Anthropology, University of California to recover any materials that remained from the guano mining of the previous year.

The American Museum of Natural History sponsored Nels Nelson to conduct a surface collection of Lovelock Cave in 1936.

He later returned in 1950 and 1965 with a field group to sift through the remains that the miners left behind in a slope in front of the cave and collect coprolites.

[3] Human coprolites found at Lovelock Cave are instrumental in piecing together the cultures’ subsistence patterns, specifically the kinds of food the Indians were eating: primarily birds, fish and other fauna that lived near the lake, as well as vegetation which was collected and stored for winter months.

The Indians of the Northern Paiute or Paviotso were occupants of the area during historic times and they recognized the sling as a toy or used for hunting and war.

[7] There are also the similar, approximately contemporaneous Elephant Mountain Cave bundle burials from the Black Rock Desert north of Lovelock, Nevada.

This view held that people of the area rarely moved from their base because they had access to such rich and varied resources.

This theory is based on the coprolitic material found at Lovelock which revealed a primary diet of fish and diverse lakeside fare.

A limnomobile view suggests that sites such as Lovelock were only occupied during certain times throughout the year and people in the area were very mobile.

The findings at the site reveal lengthy periods of occupation and also show the complicated techniques used by hunters and gatherers to acquire resources.

The inhabitants of Lovelock Cave were fortunate to live around a rich lowland marsh as the duck and goose decoys were ideal for hunting in such areas.

As hunters became more experienced they would wear disguises made from reeds or duck skin and stalk birds then surprise and grab them by the legs.

Archaeological specimens from the site show that the inhabitants collected feathers from geese, ducks, pelicans, and herons.

The women of the group were likely the gatherers and also responsible for crafting important items to make life easier in the marsh.

Manos and metates, hand-held grinding stones, were abundantly used by Native people; they helped to process plant foods, especially seeds, nuts, and other tough material.

The materials recovered from Lovelock Cave helped to demonstrate that hunting and gathering was the primary means of survival for Native Americans of the Great Basin for thousands of years.

The diversity of resources allowed the people in the area to thrive using traditional methods for a long period of time, and whose material culture remained the same for thousands of years.

Mummified remains of a man 6 feet 6 inches (1.98 m) tall were discovered by guano miners in Lovelock Cave in 1911.

About 100 miles (160 km) north of Lovelock there are plentiful fossils of mammoths and cave bears, and their large limb bones could easily be thought to be those of giants by an untrained observer.