VSO has been working with the archeologist on the Dixie National Forest for the past couple of months. The archeologist (Omar by nickname) is a trove of historical and archeological facts from all over southern Utah and the great basin. In passing a small ridge of basalt near Calf Creek one day, Omar mentioned that there had been some earlier habitation by Fremont Indians along the broken top of the ridge. VSO, being curious, wanted to go back for a look. So we did.
The spot is very close to Enterprise, which, for some reason, has grown a lot recently. Is it the relative proximity to St. George? The town is swollen with gaudy new plastic boxes—three or four cars in the yard. To be fair, not everything that has happened to the Fremont is the fault of the over-weight, semi-urban, fake-millionaires that seem to crowd every small town we ever had. But, if you can imagine what might be going on near a town filled with modern motorists, you can imagine that nothing worthwhile from the past is anything other than hacked at, pissed on, stolen, broken, scratched over, and generally defaced. I mean, why leave something of someone else's alone when you can destroy it for no good reason?
In any case, we found the site, poked at some lithic scatter, picked up some beer cans, and generally hiked around for a little while. As the sun set, and the traffic died on the gravel road below, we even started to get a feel for the place. With my hand on a chunk of rock, warmed by the setting sun, I heard the evening chirp of a canyon wren. A small band of coyotes tuned up across the creek and I heard the "hoo-oot" from VSO that meant she was looking for me. We scrambled back to the top of the steep bank above the Chev and looked at one more scratching in the rock that could have been a petroglyph. Then we headed for the road. We made it into Pinto just before full dark, and shared some wine and corn chips before hitting the pavement at the Iron Wye just outside of Cedar City.
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