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Frio Point 200 B.C. to 600A.D.


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Hammer


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Paleo-Indian Atlatl Point
8150-8010 B.C.


Howling Coyote Monument Valley


Metate Butler Wash


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1988 - 2002 Yellowstone Fire


Martin's Cove


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Trois Tetons


Grand Teton Elk

 

Article Link Bars   Questions or Suggestions

Barrier Canyon Rock Art of the Southwest
by
O. Ned Eddins

Paleo-Indians   Anasazi  Mesa Verde   Fremont Indians  Barrier Canyon   
    Hovenweep   Monument Valley  Petroglyphs

Out of the mid-Archaic Period, a group of Indians appeared in the Canyonlands area of Utah that are classified as Barrier Canyon Indians. Barrier Canyon style rock art is found on the canyon walls of the northern Colorado Plateau in southeastern Utah, western Colorado, and northern Arizona. Classification is based on the pictographs and dated by clay figurines found by Dr. Jesse Jennings of the University of Utah in Cowboy Cave. Cowboy Cave is about eight miles beyond the Great Gallery in Barrier Canyon. The clay figurines found in Cowboy Cave match the style of some Barrier Canyon pictographs.

There is a road to Barrier Canyon from the town of Green River, Utah and another one across from Utah’s Goblin Valley State Park. Located in the Maze District of Canyonlands National Park,  the name has been changed to Horseshoe Canyon on recent maps.


                                                Barrier Canyon Trailhead

The Barrier Canyon style pictograph rock art consists of larger-than-life-size anthropomorphic (manlike) forms. The identifying characteristics of these figures are vacant looking or missing eyes, the frequent absence of arms and legs, and the presence of vertical body markings (Horseshoe Canyon Archeology).


                                                    Trail into Barrier Canyon


                                                  Early Visitor - Three Toed Dinosaur


                                                  April Rains in Barrier Canyon

Unique to the Southwest, the Barrier Canyon pictographs are regarded by many as finest rock art in the United States. The Great Gallery in Barrier Canyon is more than three-hundred feet wide with over sixty figures.


                                                Barrier Canyon Great Gallery

 Archeologists speculate that the life-sized human-like figures (anthropomorphic images) were painted by different individuals across an extended period of time. Despite this several thousand year period, there are very few occurrences of images being painted over by other Indians. To me, this indicates the spiritual, or mystical, significance of the Prehistoric Indian pictographs to the Anasazi, Fremont, and historic Indians. As far as that goes, anyone that visits these sites cannot help but feel an aura of mystery.


                                                      Barrier Canyon Holy Man


                                                          Barrier Canyon Animals

 These mountain sheep and deer with the hunters carrying spears on the left end of the Great Gallery site were probably added at a much later date than the typical Barrier anthropomorphic figures.

The Great Gallery area has several distinct panels. Not all of the art panels are from the same time period (Jacobs). Horseshoe Shelter contains a mixture of Barrier, Anasazi, and Fremont pictographs and petroglyphs.

Horseshoe shelter was under a huge rock alcove, much of which has broken off. Based on the rock art and other artifacts, this site was used as a shelter for thousands of years.


                                           Horseshoe Shelter - Fremont

Buckhorn Wash

Late Barrier Canyon style rock art and Fremont petroglyphs panels are located in Buckhorn Wash.


                                                                 Buckhorn Wash

This panel was covered with bullet holes and initials. Emory County and the BLM had it restored in 1996.


 

The most famous pictograph is the Buckhorn Wash Angels.


                                                               Buckhorn Angels

Buckhorn Wash empties into the San Rafael River.


                                                Mexican Hat - San Rafael River

Sego Canyon

The Sego Canyon rock art site is at the end of an oiled road north of Thompson, Utah. This is an excellent site to see Barrier, Fremont, and historic Indian panels.


                                                               Barrier Canyon Style


                Fremont petroglyphs imposed on older Barrier Canyon pictographs


                                               Sego Canyon Historic - ~ 1800's

Horses were brought to Mexico by Cortez in 1519, and onto the Great Plains by Coronado in 1540, It is doubtful if horses reached the Canyonlands area before the late 1700's. The first known horses to reach this area were the horses with the Dominguez-Escalante Expedition in 1776.

The Prehistoric Indian article was written by O. Ned Eddins of Afton, Wyoming. Permission is given for material from this site to be used for school research papers.

Citation: Eddins, Ned. (article name) Thefurtrapper.com. Afton, Wyoming. 2002.

Article Links, References, and Responses are listed below.

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There have been many requests for copies of pictures from the website. The best website pictures, and others from Jackson Hole, Yellowstone, and Star Valley, Wyoming, have been put on a CD. The pictures make beautiful screensavers, or can be used as a slide show in Windows XP. When ordering Mountains of Stone, request the CD and I will send it free with the book. The Winds of Change CD contains different pictures than those on the Mountains of Stone CD. To view a representative sample of the pictures on the CDs, click on...

                                    

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Prehistoric Indians     Fremont    Anasazi   Mesa Verde   Hohokam  
Buckhorn Wash     Sego Canyon
      Hovenweep        Monument Valley References

 References:

Barnes, F. A and Pendleton, Michaelene. Canyon country prehistoric rock art: An illustrated guide to viewing, understanding and appreciating the rock art of the prehistoric Indian cultures of Utah, the Great Basin and the general Four Corners region. Wasatch Publishers, Salt Lake City, Utah. 1989.

 Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The fates of Human Societies. W.W. Norton, New York, N.Y. 1996.

Dillehay, Thomas D. The Settlement of the Americas. Basic Books, New York, NY. 2000.

Koppel, Tom. Did They Come By Sea? American Archeology Magazine, Spring. 2002.

Madsen, David B.. Exploring the Fremont. Utah Museum of Natural History/University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah. 1989.

Schaafsma, Polly. The Rock Art of Utah. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, Utah. 2004.

Stone, Tammy. The Prehistory of Colorado and Adjacent Areas.  University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, Utah. 1999.

Taylor, Allan. American Colonies: The settling of North America. Penguin Books. New York, NY. 2002.  

Internet Sources:

Archeology of Horseshoe Canyon
www.nps.gov/cany/horseshoe/     

Barrier Canyon Rock Art
http://www.jqjacobs.net/rock_art/barrier1.html

Jacobs, James Q - These are excellent sites.
http://www.jqjacobs.net/rock_art/ne_utah1.html
 

Paleo-American Origins
Pennsylvania Archeology
http://www.paarchaeology.state.pa.us/pub_penarch_over_prehisa.htm