The archaeologists, led by James H. Word with University of Texas researchers E. Mott Davis and T.N. Campbell, divided the cave's deposits into five zones spanning roughly 7500 BCE to 1600 CE. The site was designated 41 VV 213 -- the clinical shorthand belying what the dirt actually contained. Zone one, the oldest layer, held fire-cracked hearthstones, large flint debris, rodent and deer bones, and late Paleo-Indian projectile points of the Plainview Golondrina type. Charcoal from these early deposits was radiocarbon dated to 8910 and 9030 years before present. A complete Golondrina point established Paleo-Indian residence in the cave as early as 7080 BCE. The cave's location, perched well above the flood line, is what preserved it all. Water never reached the deposits. Time simply accumulated.

The people who used Baker Cave organized their space with purpose. The mouth of the cave was for cooking -- a large hearth dating to around 9,000 years ago contained the bones of snakes, rats, fish, and rabbits alongside a wide variety of seeds and nuts, evidence of a diversified diet drawn from the limestone canyon landscape. The middle of the cave served everyday life, while the rear was dedicated to food processing. As the centuries passed and the zones stacked higher, the diet shifted. Early layers show heavy rodent consumption and large flint work. By zone three (4000-2500 BCE), prickly pear leaves, mescal beans, pecans, walnuts, and acorns appeared alongside an increase in bird bones and a decrease in deer. By zone five (1000 BCE-1000 CE), fiber artifacts dominated -- knotted and woven materials, mesquite beans, persimmon seeds, and sotol pods -- suggesting increasingly sophisticated plant processing.

Eight distinct features emerged from the excavation, each a small window into daily life thousands of years ago. A mass of grass bound with twigs. A whitetail deer antler that appeared to have been deliberately placed under a boulder. Twelve pear internodes tied with split sacahuista and stacked in careful layers. Fifty-three sotol or lechuguilla flower stalks spread across multiple units, believed to have formed a screen or backrest for the cave's occupants. A small pit filled with flint and broken bifaces -- a toolmaker's cache, perhaps. Two bowl-shaped pits filled with fiber that seemed intended as hearths but were never lit. And finally, discovered by Jim Baker himself behind the excavation units: the burial of an infant, skull fragments lying just below the surface, a reminder that this shelter was not merely a campsite but a home where people were born, lived, and were laid to rest.

Baker Cave is one of many rock shelters in the Lower Pecos Canyons region, where limestone formations along the Devils River and its tributaries created natural overhangs that ancient peoples used for thousands of years. What set Baker Cave apart was its pristine condition -- the Baker family's vigilance and the site's isolation kept it intact when so many other shelters in the region had been disturbed. The cave's unblackened roof puzzled researchers; they speculated that either rapid spalling of the limestone or updrafting winds carried smoke out like a natural chimney. Teams from the Texas Memorial Museum, Texas Technological College, and the Witte Memorial Museum all contributed to the excavation. Despite its significance, no further research has been done at Baker Cave since the original fieldwork. The Lower Pecos region, however, remains one of the richest archaeological landscapes in North America, with numerous ongoing excavations at other sites revealing the deep history of the people who lived in these canyon shelters.