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Prehistoric Utah

Kudos to Waldo Wilcox, a Utah rancher, and his family for preserving and protecting "a string of ancient settlements thousand of years old and in near perfect condition." Having acquire the land as part of a ranch they bought in 1951, Wilcox' family recognized the historical and scientific value of the site and ensured that it wasn't discovered, commercialized, overrun, and ruined, like so many other historic sites. Wilcox just sold the site to federal and state governments for $2.5 million. [Link]

The sites were occupied for at least 3,000 years until they were abandoned more than 1,000 years ago, when the Fremont people mysteriously vanished. The Fremont, a collection of hunter-gatherers and farmers, preceded more modern American Indian tribes on the Colorado Plateau.

What sets this ancient site apart from other, better-known ones in Utah, Arizona or Colorado is that it's been left virtually untouched, with arrowheads and pottery shards still covering the ground in places.

"I didn't let people go in there to destroy it," said Wilcox, 74, whose parents bought the ranch in 1951 and threw up a gate to the rugged canyon. "The less people know about this, the better."

jon posted this at 10:47 PM
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