grinner
06-26-2004, 08:03 PM
Site a treasure trove of artifacts from ancient Utah
By Greg Lavine
The Salt Lake Tribune
http://www.sltrib.com/2004/Jun/06252004/images/ut_range.jpg
Around the year 1000, people now known as the Fremont Indians built villages in the unforgiving terrain of central Utah's Range Creek, likely chosen as a place easy to defend against potential invaders.
Nearly a thousand years later -- long after the Indians abandoned their Book Cliffs homes -- rancher Waldo Wilcox showed his own passion for defense. He and his family spent nearly 50 years keeping artifact hunters and vandals away from the remains of the Fremont pit houses, granaries and pottery.
For the past two years, archaeologist Duncan Metcalfe, of the Utah Museum of Natural History, has worked the treasure trove of Fremont finds. To date, about 200 separate sites along a 12-mile stretch have been identified; hundreds more await discovery.
While the Southwest has many historical American Indian sites, few remain as pristine as those at Range Creek.
"There's not another place in Utah where you could just walk onto the site and see stuff on the ground," Metcalfe told The Tribune two months ago.
"It is not nearly as magnificent as Mesa Verde or Chaco Canyon," Metcalfe said of similar protected sites in Colorado and New Mexico. "But the research potential is huge."
The village remnants and artifacts alone could supply at least 20 dissertations for graduate students, Metcalfe said Thursday by satellite phone from a mountain pass at 8,700 feet, overlooking the Price River.
Of the 200 documented sites on the ranch, at least 150 are untouched, said Metcalfe, who is the museum's curator of archaeology. Pottery shards and other artifacts lay virtually where their owners dropped them centuries ago.
Advertisement
"It's like walking into a canyon 100 years ago, before civilization wreaked havoc on everything," said Utah's state archaeologist Kevin Jones.
Jones said the remote location kept most people from Range Creek. And those who did make it to the property would have to contend with the Wilcox family.
Wilcox said in addition to locking gates at entry points, his family made it known that it would prosecute trespassers.
"They knew we would do it, so we didn't have that much bother," said Wilcox, 74, who now lives in Green River. "We kept most of them out."
Metcalfe said the Wilcox family helped spare these historically significant sites from pottery hunters, who dig through ruins looking for artifacts to sell on the black market, and other troublemakers.
"They don't have the pot holes or the beer cans," he said of the Range Creek sites.
Utah's Division of Wildlife Resources in February took over as guardian of the Range Creek site.
The area, 30 miles east of Price, has been public land since Wilcox sold the property in 2002.
Former Utah Congressman Jim Hansen helped secure the $2.5 million for the deal.
The Trust for Public Land, a land conservation group, brokered the sale, said Bill James, who is the DWR's habitat section chief.
Initially, the federal Bureau of Land Management purchased the land and transferred the property to DWR. The state Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands and the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food hold the conservation easement for the property, James said.
The Division of State History, DWR and several other agencies are now working out public access issues.
"It's a knockout of a site," Jones said. "We want to make sure it's like that for another 100 years."
glavine@sltrib.com link (http://www.sltrib.com/2004/Jun/06252004/utah/178742.asp)
By Greg Lavine
The Salt Lake Tribune
http://www.sltrib.com/2004/Jun/06252004/images/ut_range.jpg
Around the year 1000, people now known as the Fremont Indians built villages in the unforgiving terrain of central Utah's Range Creek, likely chosen as a place easy to defend against potential invaders.
Nearly a thousand years later -- long after the Indians abandoned their Book Cliffs homes -- rancher Waldo Wilcox showed his own passion for defense. He and his family spent nearly 50 years keeping artifact hunters and vandals away from the remains of the Fremont pit houses, granaries and pottery.
For the past two years, archaeologist Duncan Metcalfe, of the Utah Museum of Natural History, has worked the treasure trove of Fremont finds. To date, about 200 separate sites along a 12-mile stretch have been identified; hundreds more await discovery.
While the Southwest has many historical American Indian sites, few remain as pristine as those at Range Creek.
"There's not another place in Utah where you could just walk onto the site and see stuff on the ground," Metcalfe told The Tribune two months ago.
"It is not nearly as magnificent as Mesa Verde or Chaco Canyon," Metcalfe said of similar protected sites in Colorado and New Mexico. "But the research potential is huge."
The village remnants and artifacts alone could supply at least 20 dissertations for graduate students, Metcalfe said Thursday by satellite phone from a mountain pass at 8,700 feet, overlooking the Price River.
Of the 200 documented sites on the ranch, at least 150 are untouched, said Metcalfe, who is the museum's curator of archaeology. Pottery shards and other artifacts lay virtually where their owners dropped them centuries ago.
Advertisement
"It's like walking into a canyon 100 years ago, before civilization wreaked havoc on everything," said Utah's state archaeologist Kevin Jones.
Jones said the remote location kept most people from Range Creek. And those who did make it to the property would have to contend with the Wilcox family.
Wilcox said in addition to locking gates at entry points, his family made it known that it would prosecute trespassers.
"They knew we would do it, so we didn't have that much bother," said Wilcox, 74, who now lives in Green River. "We kept most of them out."
Metcalfe said the Wilcox family helped spare these historically significant sites from pottery hunters, who dig through ruins looking for artifacts to sell on the black market, and other troublemakers.
"They don't have the pot holes or the beer cans," he said of the Range Creek sites.
Utah's Division of Wildlife Resources in February took over as guardian of the Range Creek site.
The area, 30 miles east of Price, has been public land since Wilcox sold the property in 2002.
Former Utah Congressman Jim Hansen helped secure the $2.5 million for the deal.
The Trust for Public Land, a land conservation group, brokered the sale, said Bill James, who is the DWR's habitat section chief.
Initially, the federal Bureau of Land Management purchased the land and transferred the property to DWR. The state Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands and the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food hold the conservation easement for the property, James said.
The Division of State History, DWR and several other agencies are now working out public access issues.
"It's a knockout of a site," Jones said. "We want to make sure it's like that for another 100 years."
glavine@sltrib.com link (http://www.sltrib.com/2004/Jun/06252004/utah/178742.asp)