Explore Outdoors: Step into a 5,000-year-old Native American kitchen in Rocklin

Rocklin's Johnson-Springview Park is a sprawling 90-acre park in the heart of the city.Surrounded by homes and businesses, this park in Placer County has every amenity a visitor could want, including free Wi-Fi.Thousands of years ago, this same area also had everything a nomadic tribe of Native Americans would need. In the middle of an ancient oak forest and with a fresh supply of mineral water from a nearby spring, members of the Nisenan tribe found food and shelter.With a short walk down a groomed dirt walking trail, you can visit the historic site akin to a Native American kitchen. "You can sit there and imagine what it was like in a Nisenan kitchen. It was where they prepared their food, gathered, cooked there, did ceremonies there," said Christina Richter, an author and historian of Placer County's rich past. Behind a small iron fence sits a large granite slab, pocked with holes called mortars, once used by the Nisenan to grind acorns into a powder."There are 88 of these mortar holes in Johnson-Springview Park. It’s kind of fascinating. Geologists actually dated the oldest one to 5,000 years ago. That is fascinating because nomadic tribes didn’t really start to settle until 2000 years ago," Richter said.Right next to the grinding stones is a freshwater spring boiling up from deep in the earth through slabs of clean granite.The water was believed to have healing powers.The spring feeds a small creek and a stand of Alkali Bulrush, a plant the Nisenan would use to weave baskets and mats.After you explore the historic site and study the interpretive signs, take a short walk to the nearby Antelope Creek, still within the park boundaries.Here, you can leave the flat trail for a hiking trail that parallels the creek beneath the canopy of oak trees overhead.It's a nice place to stop, reflect on the day and what you have learned about the settlers who've used this same area for thousands of years."I would encourage people to go to this historic site and imagine how we were 2,000 years ago when these Nisenan were settled here and they were living off the land and hunt for big game and supplement their diet with squirrels and rabbits and smaller animals and imagine how they lived their lives and raised their families and enjoy this beautiful area we also enjoy," Richter said.The main entrance to Johnson-Springview Park is off 5th Street. If you'd prefer a shorter walk to the historic site, you can access a shortcut near the intersection of 5th St and Rocklin Road.You can learn more about Placer County's history and the people who have helped shape it in Richter's books, "Placer County, Past and Present" and "Walk with me, I want to tell you something - The story of the Roseville Fidyment Family."See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app.