Unearthing Fremont culture

An ongoing archaeological survey near the Book Cliffs could lead to new discoveries about the way the prehistoric Fremont people lived in central Utah, an archaeologist said Friday at the Utah Museum of Natural History.

The pristine nature of the Range Creek site makes it one of the nation's premier survey sites, said Duncan Metcalfe, curator of archaeology at the museum, who publicly reviewed work at the site for the first time.

"This one hasn't been looted," Metcalfe said. "I used to think of it as a once-in-a-lifetime find. We found about 130 untouched (sites), and I think there are thousands."

Metcalfe discussed the survey at the opening of the museum exhibit "America's Public Lands." The exhibit displays benefits provided by public lands, including recreation, fish and wildlife and scientific and cultural values. It is the result of the collaboration of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service and Utah Division of Parks and Recreation. Among those attending the opening were Gov. Olene Walker; Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah; Utah BLM director Sally Wisely and other public lands officials.

The Range Creek site, located on a former ranch about two hours southeast of Price on the West Tavaputs Plateau, is a project that the museum, the BLM, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, the Division of State History, Uinta Research and Salt Lake Community College have been working on for the past two years, he said. The site, not currently open to the general public, was private land until it recently passed into state ownership through the cooperation of former Rep. Jim Hansen, Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife and the Division of Wildlife Resources.

The Fremont people lived in central and northern Utah from about A.D. 200 to A.D. 1300, about the same time the Anasazi inhabited the Four Corners area, Metcalfe said. The Fremont made pottery, lived in pit houses and grew corn, beans and squash, he said.

While there are several competing theories as to what caused the disappearance of the Fremont, Metcalfe said most point to worsening farming conditions, warfare or both.

Range Creek finds so far include a large number of rock art sites, remote granaries in the rock wall and pit houses, Metcalfe said. He said the granaries were so remote that researchers have yet to figure out how to reach them without climbing ropes.

"Why build a place to store corn that's 50 feet up a sheer cliff?" he said. "We can't figure out how they got up there to build them, let alone to put corn in them. . . . It seems a lot easier to build it next to a house."

One possibility Metcalfe suggested was protection from rodents, as well as from would-be thieves.

While it's still unknown how many people lived at Range Creek, Metcalfe said the Fremont probably occupied the area from around A.D. 1000 to A.D. 1300.

He said evidence, such as the use of rocks as heavy as 400 pounds in building some of the pit houses, suggest the people meant to live there longer than they did.

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E-mail: dbulkeley@desnews.com