August 1: The McConkie Ranch

Today we explored the Fremont petroglyphs that are located on the McConkie Ranch, north of Vernal.  These are listed on the National Historical Register, I believe.

Although the property is part of a private ranch, the owner has welcomed visitors with a parking lot and a small cabin filled with clippings about the site and refreshments.

  She even provides walking sticks for those who need them to climb the cliff where the images are located.  Her ranch is a combination of the old West and the new.

  Rows of antlers serve as warnings, I guess.

The setting overlooks a very fertile valley.

 It is easy to see why the Fremont people would camp here and possibly raise corn as part of their diet.  The fact that a hunter/gatherer people would also rely on a domestic crop contradicts many simplistic assumptions that we have about cultural processes.

We thought the site would be relatively small.   It turned out to be about 600 yards long, up about 150 feet from the valley floor.  We spent five hours here, searching the cliff face for additional images.

We found a clear link between this site and the “Pilling” figurines that we saw yesterday at the Price museum.

 One of the Pilling-type images even had feet,

 which is a bit puzzling.

In general, the Fremont figures are quite different than either barrier canyon or Anasazi anthropomorphs.  Fremont images are much more realistic and highly detailed.

  Female figures are frequently included and clearly distinguished from males.

  All the attention of the pecktographers seems to be on the costumes and jewelry.

  Every figure wears unique costumes with a fantastic variety of decoration.

 Each also wears a distinctive type of necklace or pendant.

Fremont bodies are often trapezoidal and standing in static poses.  The heads are like upside down buckets with no facial features except “slits” for eyes, nose, and mouth.

I tend to agree with some recent scholars who believe that these figures are wearing masks and ritual costuming.  They may be idealized images, rather than everyday images.   But the attention to detail in terms of formal attire is striking.

Many of the images show warriors, suggesting that the Fremont were fighters.

  The paint that still adheres to a few images reveals that the petroglyphs were originally painted, but almost all have lost their color and are hard to see in the cliff face.  (Note the “tears” that are coming down the face of the warrior.)

What is most disconcerting is what many of the warriors are holding (sometimes jointly) in their hands.

  Some scholars call them “bags.”  Look closely, however, and you will see eyes, nose, and mouth on some.

  They are heads, perhaps full face scalps.

 Visitors beware!  The eyes on some are even weeping tears! Just as the eyes on the warrior were also weeping!

Finally, we walked a quarter mile further south to the final site at the McConkie Ranch:  what is called the “Three Kings Panel.”  I do not know why, since there are more than three and they are not kings.  The panel is, incredibly, 150 feet straight up on an inaccessible cliff face.

 Who was nuts enough to chip away at the mountain up there?  The figures are just as detailed and controversial.  One holds a spiral that has supernatural significance.