In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, many Basques emigrated to the United States without clear plans for the future. Finding themselves in a foreign country with no knowledge of English, no money and no support, they were forced to look for any way to survive. Sheep farming became one of the few options for them – hard and lonely work in the mountains with nothing to say.
Thus a special page in the history of the American West emerged – a history written not in ink, but with knives on aspen bark.
Basque immigrant shepherds left their messages by carving them into trees throughout this vast territory.
These footprints have become a kind of cultural heritage, preserving the memory of their life and work among the wilderness.
In the footsteps of their ancestors
Inaki Arrieta Baro, who heads the University’s John Bilbao Library of Basque Culture A name forged on a tree left many decades ago.
We stood in the same place where their grandfather stood. It was very emotional,” recalls Arrieta Baro.
Photo by Haley Harrison
Between the US Pacific Coast and Wyoming, aspen groves hold unique stories of Basque shepherds.
On the bark of the trees are arborglyphs: names, dates, drawings, poems, love messages and political slogans in the ancient Euskara language. They have become silent witnesses to forgotten destinies.
These signs help us understand who these people were,” explains Inaki Arrieta Baro.
He carefully shows a piece of wood with the inscription: ‘Jesús María El Cano, 26-7’. This is just one of thousands of names left by the Basques among the mountains.
After the Gold Rush, the Basques came to California, Nevada and Idaho in search of a better life.
Amaya Herrera, curator of her mother’s museum in Basque, shared her thoughts on politics and love.
Euskara is the oldest language in Europe, unique in that it has no kinship with any other.
So it is strange to see slogans like Gora Euskadi – “Long live the Basque Country” – engraved on trees thousands of kilometres from the Pyrenees.
These messages have become precious relics – silent voices from the past that still speak of the life and soul of the Basque shepherds.
25,000 voices in the forest
Since the 1960s, researchers, among them Basque-American José Mallea Olaeche, began collecting and documenting these arborglyphs – carved inscriptions on trees.
Today, there are more than 25,000 such images, ranging from conventional photographs to modern 3D scans.
They paid special attention to arborvitae – soft crowned trees that grow where there is water and grasslands – which have more than 25,000 images: from conventional photographs to modern 3D scans.
About 80 per cent of the trees she once documented were canines.
In Nevada, the massive Jakes fire is now burning. Scientists fear that along with the fire, priceless arborglyphs – unique evidence of Basque shepherd life – could disappear forever.
Most of the arborglyphs are located on public lands. In June 2025, Congress considered a bill called the “One Big Beautiful Bill” that could have authorised the transfer of such lands for logging and development. After public pressure, that portion was removed, but the threat of destruction remained.
“We are trying to preserve these traces before they disappear,” says Arrieta Baro. But the scientists can’t cope on their own – they need the help of everyone who cares.