Carbon County has spent thousands of dollars paving short sections of the road to limit the dust, and the section of road that once ran right beneath the Hunting Scene Panel — it was rerouted by the gas company to give the rock art some protection. But Miller says much more must be done. If not, she fears, the energy boom may spell the end of one of the world's great outdoor museums.

State archaeologist Kevin Jones said in a recent interview that no one knows what the effects of diesel exhaust, dust and treatments to keep it down have been "because that hasn't been examined well at all," noting that the single minimal study done so far had conflicting results.

"We at least ought to find out," Jones said. "I do know what's there didn't last a thousand years with semis rolling by all the time."

Whatever oil is there will be taken within the next 20 to 30 years, Jones said.

"It's not going to destroy us to take some time and find out what effect these modern conditions will have," Jones added. "This is a place a lot of people care deeply about, where people come from around the world to find a connection to it and feel inspired when they leave.

"If we have no archaeological heritage, that would be a grand cultural tragedy," he said, noting that both science and history would "judge us pretty harshly for allowing short-sighted greed to destroy the world's longest art gallery."

There needs to be monitors installed that would definitely track movement of the ground, both from the traffic and for the concussions sent underground when the oil company does testing for drill sites, he said. The effects of that on art sites that are closer than 100 meters to the road, what is happening to panels under rock overhangs or those facing away or toward the road are all unknown at this point.

"These are all issues that should have been addressed at the front end," said Jerry Spangler, an archaeologist and founder of the Colorado Plateau Archaeological Alliance, a Utah-based nonprofit created in 2005 to foster the protection and preservation of archaeological resources throughout the West.

"There is no baseline data behind any of the decisions," said Spangler, who along with his wife, Donna Kemp Spangler, has written two books and dozens of research reports on the area and is currently researching and cataloging hundreds of recently discovered art panels, ancient granaries and villages.

"The closest baseline we have is a handful of photographs taken by scientists and interested volunteers between 1989 and 1993," he said. "Most of us can't appreciate the incredible amount of time we're dealing with here. Our life spans are short and our cultural memory is 300 years — from our national consciousness in Boston or back to 1847 here. This is just as significant and scientifically important to knowing who we are."