The secret of ranch creek ranch

Before becoming famous, Waldo Wilcock lived in a remote valley in Utah for most of his life, which was located in the southeast of Salt Lake City 150 miles. He has a 4,200-acre land in Shu Ya, which is a wilderness with rock walls as high as 10000 feet. The pasture winds along Range Creek 12 miles, passing through shrub hills, lush grasslands and alpine forests. Waldo's parents Pearl and Ray willcocks bought this property at 195 1, and three generations of willcocks will endure winter, heat, periodic drought and bears in Ranch Creek Canyon. During this time, they have been trying to ignore the prehistoric Indian ruins all over their land. Half of the pit house was dug, and the roof collapsed, dotted with the valley bottom and surrounding hills. Arrows, beads, ceramic fragments and stone fragments were scattered all over the floor. Human bones are protruding from the hanging rocks, and hundreds of strange human figures with slender limbs and strange protrusions on their heads are carved on the cliff wall. The family kept silent about this mysterious world. In particular, Waldo became an enthusiastic guardian. He drove away the curious locals, who knew all the cultural relics.

Then in 200 1 year, willcocks, who was in his seventies, quietly sold his property to a non-profit public land trust fund for $2.5 million, and then federal and state government agencies helped arrange to award the land to Utah. The archaeologist was surprised when he called to visit the site. The site is not only vast, but also well preserved: the pit houses are intact, there are no graffiti or bullet holes on the rock paintings, and the barn is full of corn cobs thousands of years ago.

Scientists immediately set up a research camp. Kevin jones, an archaeologist from Utah, said, "There are almost no sites in the continental United States that have not been extensively excavated and destroyed." . The researchers soon realized that they were lucky enough to enter a small village constellation 65,438+0,000 years ago. These small villages belong to mysterious fremont people, highly mobile hunters and farmers. Most of them lived in Utah in 200-65,438+0,300 years. Range Creek disappeared like Anasazi living on a cliff, while Anasazi and his contemporaries lived further south. In a report by the Associated Press in June 2004, they described the archaeological wealth and the eccentric landlord who kept secrets for decades. Wilcock became famous overnight, and news reports from Salt Lake City to Sydney described him as a brave cowboy. He once kept vigil on a magical time capsule. Willcocks boasted to a reporter, "This is like the first white man, just like I have always been." "Archaeologists' research adds mystery to this place. To quote Jones, Range Creek is called "national treasure", and its discovery is similar to "finding a Van Gogh painting in your grandmother's attic". Another praised it as "one of the most important archaeological collections in North America"

Part of the excitement is the hope that Range Creek can help explain what happened in fremont. Along the bottom of the canyon, the traces of a big village show a prosperous settlement, while the pit houses and granaries built on the cliff show a place to defend against retreat. "Jones said," We have seen some places where people live on the edge of the ridge 900 to 65,438+0,000 feet from the bottom of the valley. In other words, if you want to get a pot of water, you have to send someone on foot and come back. These people are a little scared. They are obviously protecting their food, not mice.

The study of Range Creek may help to explain why agriculture in most parts of southwest China suddenly stopped seven centuries ago, prompting tribes to give up their ancestors Pueblo. For many years, experts have believed that war, drought, disease and religious unrest may be the reasons for the outflow of people. "I am most interested in their food in many places. Jones said, "you may lose some of them, but at least if there is another person involved, they only have some." When we climbed higher, 54-year-old Jones and Husky pointed out that there were several adobe granaries, which were shaped into small cracks with red clay and almost disguised as high sandstone cliffs. There is evidence that people in fremont use rough ladders or make toes on rocks to reach them. Wilcock said he never tried to reach the cliff barn.

Willcocks turned his attention to a narrow crack in the wall in front of us. "See the hole behind the rock? I bet you 100 to 10 dollars. If you dig under the stone, you will find a dead Indian. I asked willcocks how he knew. " Because there are stones on the top of the tomb. You'll find him hunched like a newborn.

"Well, we won't test your hypothesis through in-depth research," Jones said. Nothing makes archaeologists more nervous than finding human remains on * * * land. This usually leads to a federal review, requiring researchers to notify tribes that may claim that the remains are the remains of ancestors. Tribal concerns about possible blasphemy may prevent this research. Willcocks went on to say that Jones looked as if he wished he were on another cliff. But the old rancher is just getting started. "You can't find anything of value in the grave. I've seen some dug up. I think these Indians are too poor to go to a happy hunting ground after their death. There is no need to take anything from them. When the story of Range Creek first appeared in the news media, local tribes, such as Utes in the north who claimed to have ties with fremont people, were angry that archaeologists had kept them in the dark about this site. Since then, researchers and tribal leaders have almost settled their differences. Nevertheless, Metcalfe reluctantly told me that archaeologists had found five groups of human remains in or near the pasture. He said that the tribe had been informed that the researchers had not touched the body and just wanted to analyze it. Although Wilcock once showed me a set of eroded bones and a skull partially buried a quarter of a mile away from his hometown, he said that he had never dug any graves: "When I was a child, my father told me,' We own this land, but we don't recognize them as Indians.

Archaeologists don't like the word "fremont", but they have been using it since the 1920s, when Noel mors, an anthropology student at Harvard University, recorded "unique unpainted black or gray pottery" along the fremont River in south-central Utah, which is a kind of "unique moccasins", "exquisite clay figurines" and "rich hieroglyphics of different types". Some scholars believe that fremont is a close relative of Anasazi, or "ancestor Pueblo"-a term preferred by contemporary Native Americans. ("Anasazi" is said to be the word "ancient enemy" in Navajo) Some people think that it developed from the unique desert culture established before Anasazi. Until recently, researchers believed that when the climate dried up, the fremont River dried up. "For a long time, the simplest answer is the drought in 1300. But people in fremont have experienced similar droughts in the past. Another view is that drought, population pressure and invasion make the life of fremont people unsustainable. Utes is a hunter-gatherer tribe. It is possible that when fremont people start to retreat to the cliff, they immigrate from California to this area, and food books may become ugly.

Archaeologists also concluded that the war between fremont people also broke out in this period. "You know, if your family is starving to death, if you push corn cultivation to the limit and you can only get a quarter of the corn to spend a winter in Utah, it seems more and more like a better choice for you to go in and help your neighbors," Metcalfe said. Even from their rock art, life in fremont is very dangerous. Perhaps the most memorable rock painting I saw in Range Creek was an inverted portrait, with head or tail or * * *. It is red and carved on the rock at the bottom of the cliff. It may depict a Fremont falling down and dying.

The only thing the researchers can be sure of is that by about A.D. 1350, all the physical ornaments calling for Fremunt's unique sandals, baskets and pottery disappeared from the archaeological records. It's possible that people in fremont just moved out. Scientists have recently discovered potential evidence of stoves and houses in fremont, which can be traced back to about 1500 years ago. They are located on a tributary of the Green River in northwest Colorado, 75 miles north of Ranch Creek. Barlow and others want to know whether this culture has changed from farming to full-time hunting and gathering. Metcalfe said, "When you become a hunter-gatherer again, you won't stay in one place for long." You will turn your attention to archaeologists. Material culture will be very different, but it may also be the same person.

Like fremont's story, Ranch Crick's story is complicated. First of all, the canyon is not completely primitive. Fur hunters arrived at the end of 19, when they also started herding cattle. A farmer named Clarence Pirin discovered the 1 1 clay figurine made in fremont. Later, he donated some of them to the nearby Preston Utah Museum of History, where they are now displayed as "Pirin Statues".

The willcocks family has also done some collection work for many years. If I see an arrow, I will pick it up. "I won't lie to you or anyone," Waldo Wilcox said. "I don't have much. Wilcock's niece Jenny Zhan Sen said that people often find cultural relics at home. 1999, Ellen Sue Turner, an archaeologist from Texas, visited the ranch, and Wilcock's wife Julie showed her some cultural relics, including fremont sandals, a jar, an arrow and a millstone. (Turner wrote about her visit to staa.org/fremont/index.html) Steve Gerber, the official historian of Lanxi Archaeological Research Project, said that the Wilcock couple "really worked hard to protect this place" and his father owned a ranch, adding: "This doesn't mean that they didn't take anything, and it doesn't mean that those people didn't take anything before. For scientists, the value is that they didn't dig a hole.

"I have been to many places, and I am confident that these places haven't appeared for 65,438+0,000 years," said Renee Barlow, pointing out that many sites and cultural relics recorded by us are still declining. "There are too many cultural relics. Since the investigation began in 2002, less than 10% of the pastures have been investigated. Jerry spangler, an archaeologist in Utah who works in Ranch Creek, said, "Waldo has forgotten more sites than any of us in our lifetime. "

At the same time, Wilcock's legend continued to grow, and he continued to win awards and honors for his management in Ranch Creek. Less well known is that although Wilcock sold his property, he retained the right to exploit underground mineral deposits or energy sources, including oil and gas. He said that the possibility of leasing these deposits to natural gas developers is not ruled out. This prospect frightened some archaeologists. When Wilcock and I were driving through the old pasture, we passed two hikers. They were about a mile away from the gate, and their car was parked there, so Wilcock stopped to give them a lift. When middle-aged tourists see Wilcock, they are as dazzled as two teenagers see their favorite rock star. "You are a hero," one of them said excitedly. Willcocks shrugged and smiled.