Located astride the border between Washoe and Pershing counties,[1] it was a shallow lake until the 1930s, but was dried when a dam and a road were built that combined to restrict and block water flow.

[2] It lies east of Pyramid Lake and is on the dividing line between Washoe and Pershing counties.

[9] The Elko Free Press reports that there was a flood in 1862 that filled the lake to 80 feet (24 m), but Russell states that the level was low in 1862.

After the Derby Dam was built on the Truckee River in 1903 (the first project of the Reclamation Act), and State Route 447 (which blocked the slough connecting it to Pyramid Lake) was built, Winnemucca Lake dried out and has remained seasonally dry since the late 1930s.

In 1994, geochemist Larry Benson determined the designs had been carved into a branch form of tufa, a type of limestone.

The research showed that the limestone was deposited between 16,200 and 14,800 years ago, but no specific date for the carvings was suggested.

[2] In 2013, a team of researchers from the University of Colorado at Boulder (including Benson) collected carbonate crust and shallow-water algal formations from the site.

Sedimentary cores were collected from nearby Pyramid Lake and subjected to analysis to determine rise and fall of the waterline over time.

[2] More precise methods of dating would have required taking scrapings from the grooves of the petroglyphs, which was not allowed by the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe.

[2] The younger dates also align with the estimated age of the Spirit Cave mummy found nearby.

[19] The older date would roughly correspond to the estimated time of the first human migrations into North America and to remains found in Paisley Cave, Oregon.

Previously, the oldest carvings in North America were thought to be those estimated to be 7,300 years old found at Long Lake, in Oregon.