"Part of our business strategy is to find gas," Felton said. "The U.S. Geological Survey will point to the Uinta Basin alone as being potentially one of the most prolific gas-producing regions on the planet."

Lawson LeGate, senior southwest regional representative of the Sierra Club, said while there are places where drilling for oil and gas are appropriate, Nine Mile Canyon is not such a place.

"The archaeological treasures there are at risk from drilling activities and should not be threatened with damage," LeGate said. "There's a better way. This nation needs to get serious about exploring renewable energy options that don't threaten our precious archaeological and wildland resources. Wind and solar have a tremendous potential, and so does conservation. Those are the kinds of things we should be doing instead."

Utah is seeing a boom in oil and natural gas activity, a trend that is likely to continue over the next 10 to 15 years, according to Banks.

"We had the largest lease sales in the history of Utah in 2004," Banks said. "On the development side we issued in our Vernal field office alone last year authorization for 700 wells. That is more than twice the number of wells we issued in 2002."

Tab McGinley, senior landman for Bill Barrett Corp., said the misconception is that oil and gas reserves can be found anywhere.

"It's not everywhere," McGinley said. "We didn't pick Nine Mile Canyon. Mother Nature picked Nine Mile Canyon. That's where the gas reserves are. It's not blanketed across the entire Uinta Basin."

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E-mail: danderton@desnews.com