Gas Drillers, Toxic Dust Threaten to Erase Utah’s Ancient Art

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Gas Drillers, Toxic Dust Threaten to Erase Utah’s Ancient Art
Mike Di Paola - http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=aJte0d9NfAFY&refer=muse


April 6 (Bloomberg) -- The rock carving is a crude but evocative image. Chipped out of sandstone at least 800 years ago, the scene depicts bow hunters moving in on a herd of longhorn sheep, a poignant tableau of survival and ritual.

This fascinating petroglyph has endured the elements for centuries in what is now eastern Utah, but its future is less certain.

Every day scores of industrial trucks chug through Nine Mile Canyon. They kick up plumes of dust that archaeologists say are damaging thousands of prehistoric carvings and paintings crafted by some of North America’s earliest inhabitants -- the Fremont culture, the Utes and others who lived here more than 1,000 years ago.

“Nine Mile Canyon is a special place, so it has to be treated in a special way,” says Pam Miller, a professor at Eastern Utah University and president of the advocacy group Nine Mile Canyon Coalition.

Archaeologist Ray Matheny takes me on a tour ................

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