On the Eastern side of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California sits a largely forgotten mountain that played a huge role in the lives of Indigenous people who lived throughout what is now California (and beyond).
Lookout Mountain, topping out at 8,327 feet above sea level, contains one of the finest deposits of obsidian, which provided the raw materials for valuable tools thousands of years ago.
“The people working the obsidian here were almost certainly ancestors of the Kootzaduka’a, the southernmost band of the Northern Paiute, who have resided in the Mono Basin region for more than 6,000 years. Obsidian was immensely valuable, like the microchips of the day.”
Obsidian tools sourced from Lookout Mountain have been found hundreds of miles away from this volcanic outcrop.
Though it is rare, some surgeons today still use obsidian knives, which can produce a much sharper blade than surgical steel.