Salt Lake Valley pit house is being excavated

The setting was idyllic: a village on a bluff overlooking wetlands and a river filled with rainbow trout. Nearby burbled thermal springs where a person could take a hot bath.

This site, near the Utah State Prison in Draper, is where one of Salt Lake Valley's oldest homes is being excavated. The pit house still had tools on the floor as well as burned animal bones and charcoal. Dated through the radiocarbon technique, the burned bits showed that the house is 3,000 years old.

Volunteers and professional staff members under the direction of Kevin Jones, the state archaeologist, and his assistant, Ron Rood, have been working hard since May to uncover the home's site.

The site was damaged during the construction of the nearby Bangerter Highway, said Jones. Trucks drove through the site, dumping fill dirt. This activity jumbled some of the material and covered up artifacts. Along with the excavation going on now, the site needed reseeding and stabilization so it won't erode into the Jordan River.

Other than the handful of professionals, the work has been carried out by volunteers from the Utah Statewide Archaeological Society, and students from the University of Utah, Brigham Young University and a number of high schools and elementary schools.

Elementary school youngsters had to submit essays and do research in order to qualify for the dig. Each wrote a page about prehistory in Utah and why they would like to help with the project.

"It was fun," said Alyson Kyle, 9, who is about to enter fourth grade at Escalante Elementary, 1810 W. 900 North. "I found, like, these gopher's jaw and some lithics (and) fire-cracked rocks."

Pieces of obsidian, she added, were "black and real shiny."

Added her sister, Jenifer, 10, going into fifth grade at Escalante, "I found a small tool, real spiky." The purple stone tool may have been used to scrape animal hides.

What was fun about the project? "Getting dirty."

According to Jones, the fire-cracked rocks were part of the cooking utensils of the early Utahns who lived there. The era predates pottery, and the residents cooked in baskets.

"To cook in a basket you heat up a rock with fire and drop it in with the food," he said.

"We're finding lots and lots of rocks that have been cracked in a distinctive way" while used in cooking.