Balancing act to protect Range Creek

Now that Range Creek is in state hands and archaeologists are just beginning to discover its bounty, one big question is how to protect the 1,300-acre site.

The problem in finding an answer lies in how many different groups, including sportsmen, Native Americans and archaeologists, have an interest in the area.

Over 200 people filled an auditorium Thursday at the Salt Lake City Main Library to learn more about the former east-central Utah home of the Fremont people.

Unlike the popular Mesa Verde site in Colorado, Range Creek isn't as visually stunning to the uninitiated.

However, "from a research perspective, it's absolutely amazing," said Duncan Metcalfe, curator of archaeology at the Utah Museum of Natural History.

In what amounts to about two months of field study over three years, researchers have identified 97 granaries where the Fremont stored mostly corn around 1,500 years ago.

There are 75 sites with rock art, 45 pit houses and 12 pit house villages, according to K. Renee Barlow, assistant professor at Salt Lake Community College.

In all, archaeologists and teams of student volunteers have located 300 separate sites — and that's just scratching the surface of what else is out there, researchers believe.

Until today most of the sites were protected by sturdy gates put up by former Range Creek landowner Waldo Wilcox, who was also known to patrol his land with a shotgun at his side.

Combined with the ruggedness of the terrain surrounding Range Creek, state archaeologist Kevin Jones said the land has received better protection than any law could provide.

But it's a "fragile" place, Jones added, and he's not ready to "throw open the doors" to the public. "We have many things to balance. We will open it to the citizens."

Archaeologist Jerry Spangler said it's now important that researchers learn how the landscape and the Fremont sites have changed since the 1931 Harvard expedition that identified the first 20 sites at Range Creek.

"These were the first true archaeologists to conduct an archaeological expedition in Utah," said Spangler, an adjunct professor at the College of Eastern Utah. He is also the Washington correspondent for the Deseret Morning News.

Why is public participation in Range Creek important?

"It's not a curiosity," Spangler said, "it's about us as a people."

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E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com