A treasure chest of history

Forget the lost Rhodes Mine, the lost Dutchman Mine and all the other wannabe treasures. This past week Utah officials revealed a cache more precious than gold: The Range Creek archaeological find.

Earlier this week the state revealed a hidden bounty of Fremont and Anasazi artifacts just off Highway 6 in east-central Utah. Located on the state-owned Wilcox ranch, the site is a breathtaking display of life in a Native American village more than a millennium ago. The paintings have retained their pigment, the granaries still hold corn cobs and the shallow graves show glimpses of skeletons.

For those who relish that sturdy thread of continuity that runs through human history, the Wilcox ranch is nothing short of a wonderland.

We salute Waldo Wilcox, the rancher who made sure the area remained pristine all the years he owned it. We also salute the state for making sure everything was in place before raising the curtain on this one-of-a-kind cultural find.

Apparently not every government agency is riddled with leaks.

If, as has been said, the appropriate study of man is man, then the Wilcox site offers an amazing laboratory. It's estimated that the area will spawn 20 doctoral dissertations over the next few years. It's also estimated there may be as many as 5,000 sites left to explore. It is a discovery for the ages.

We urge Utahns to catch the spirit of that discovery and return any Native American artifacts to the state they may have gleaned in the past. We also urge them to tread lightly when visiting locations that were once home to America's earliest inhabitants.

Unless everyone is committed to maintaining the traces of fading cultures, it won't be long before the wind blows them away.

If that happens, it will be a tragedy much greater than forgetting the coordinates to a hidden gold mine.