Roughly 13,000-12,000 years ago peoples inhabited Burnet Cave during hunting trips. They hunted now extinct Pleistocene animals, like musk ox and caribou, high up in the Guadalupe Mountains and carried the carcasses back down to the safety of this shelter. Evidence of burned animal bone and a stone tool suggest that this cave is where they butchered and cooked the meat. Much later in time, about 3,000 to 2,000 years ago, new peoples inhabited the cave, using it as a place to bury the cremated ashes of their family members.