Dispute Threatens Utah Canyon's Treasures

[Judi Lynn]

Dispute Threatens Utah Canyon's Treasures
By PAUL FOY
Associated Press Writer

November 21, 2005, 4:46 AM EST


SALT LAKE CITY -- A remote Utah canyon that long concealed a string of ancient Indian settlements holds another surprise: The rancher who sold it kept the mineral rights and says he may use them.
(snip)

Hunters want Utah to unlock the gates of Range Creek Canyon to unrestricted public access, opening an area described as controlling access to 75,000 acres of prime hunting ground on government land.

University of Utah archaeologists worry about looting in a pristine canyon that holds everything from arrow shafts to half-buried village sites. Scientific American magazine described it as one of the most important discoveries of 2004.

Fremont Indians lived in the region as hunters and farmers until about 800 years ago, when they largely disappeared from the area. But they left signs of their lives there, including detailed art and symbols on the canyon walls and stores of grains high in the cliffs. Tribes including the Utes, the Skull Valley band of Goshute and the Pauite have claimed to be descended from the Fremont.
(snip)

Wilcox also fears public access would ruin Range Creek Canyon. But he says he's not above letting an oil company set up a drill rig in the canyon, in compensation for the state's lowball offer.
(snip/...)

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns

Photos from Google images:
http://www.anthro.utah.edu/fieldschool/photoalbum2c.html






Rancher Waldo Wilcox shows Fremont petroglyphs
in Range Creek Canyon to Philip Notarianni.

http://www.staa.org/fremont/

[xchrom]

1. musn't let those national treasures get in the way

of hunting and mining.

[DeepModem Mom]

2. All of our natural treasures, it seems, are under siege...

in the age of Bush. What a legacy, W!