Rock Art of Utah: Nine Mile Canyon archaeology and rock art may be at risk despite official protection and preservation status.

The Great Hunt rock art panel

The Colorado Plateau Archaeological Alliance has reported a case of vandalism in Utah's Nine Mile Canyon. This occurred in March at one of the rock shelters within the 40-mile long (not 9) canyon. The Bureau of Land Management in Price has been notified.

The vandalism was manifested by the burying of two wire cables in the floor of the shelter and the displacement of delicate archaeological material in order to construct new walls. This development has obviously caused fears for the future safety of the artefacts and the rock art.

Daddy Canyon, part of Nine Mile Canyon. Image: Roxanna Groves

The rock art in the Nine Mile Canyon - referred to as the world's longest art gallery - is thought to have been created by the Fremont culture and the Ute people, dated at AD 950 to 1250. There are an estimated 1,000 rock art sites in the canyon, with more than 10,000 individual images. Much is in the form of pecked petroglyphs, but painted pictographs are also present.

The canyon was named during a John Wesley Powell expedition in 1869 after the topographer F.M. Bishop carried out a nine-mile triangulation drawing. In 2004, due to concerns about energy development and increasing recreational and tourist traffic, Nine Mile Canyon was named on the National Trust for Historic Preservation's list of America's Most Endangered Places. In 2009, 63 sites in the canyon were added to the National Register of Historic Places, with another 164 added in 2012 and 101 in 2014, and the Bureau of Land Management has announced plans to nominate some 600 more in years to come.  

Visit the American Rock Art Archive:

http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/america/index.php