Danger Cave is one of North America's most important archaeological sites, a small cavern in a limestone ridge northeast of Wendover that was formed by the waves of Lake Bonneville during the last Ice Age. Excavations beginning in the 1950s uncovered layers of human occupation spanning 12,000 years, from roughly 10,000 BCE into historic times. The artefacts — basketry, leather, tools, and plant material — established what archaeologists call the Desert Culture, a way of life adapted to the Great Basin environment that persisted remarkably unchanged for millennia.
The cave is a State Historic Monument. The name comes from a near-disaster during excavations when part of the roof collapsed. Access is limited to protect the site; the exterior and the ridge offer good views over the salt flats and help explain the prehistoric landscape. The nearby Jukebox Cave has produced similar artefacts. A visit pairs naturally with the Bonneville Salt Flats and gives the white expanse of the desert a human context that goes back further than almost any site in the American West.