What Contributions Have The Basques Made To The United States?

In the late 19th century, great flocks of sheep were introduced to mountains of the U.S. West. Men whose families had been herders for centuries in the Basque region of Spain and France came to take charge of them.

The men and their flocks roamed up and down the length of the Sierra Nevada mountains of California and ranges of Nevada's Great Basin.

Their most enduring legacy is arboglyphs: names, dates, and representational images carved into the trunks of aspen trees. They also left behind "stone boys," great cairns of rocks, some 10 feet high, upon which backpackers still stumble and wonder about.

Nameless Basque shepherds are credited with the first ascents of some of the highest (12,000- to 14,000-foot) peaks of the Southern Sierra Nevada.

The Basque also operated boardinghouses and restaurants. Basque cuisine can still be eaten in towns like Truckee, California, and Gardnerville, Nevada. One of the most famous names in Nevada's entertainment industry is John Ascuaga, a shepherd's descendant who founded the Nugget casino chain.  

Delightfully complex Basque names are still found among the most prominent and old families of the Carson Valley, south of Nevada's capital, Carson City. A member of one of them, Paul Laxalt, became the state's governor and a U.S. senator in the 1950s.
The Basque shepherds have now been largely supplanted by Peruvians.