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Range Creek, rising in the
Book Cliffs The Book Cliffs are a series of desert mountains and cliffs in western Colorado and eastern Utah in the western United States. They are so named because the cliffs of Cretaceous sandstone that cap many of the south-facing buttes appear similar ...
in
Emery County, Utah Emery County is a county in east-central Utah, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 10,976. Its county seat is Castle Dale, and the largest city is Huntington. History Prehistory Occupation of the San Rafae ...
, is a high
tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainag ...
of the Green River, a major tributary of the
Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. s ...
. The creek flows year around. It has been nominated for classification as a
National Wild and Scenic River The National Wild and Scenic Rivers System was created by the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968 (Public Law 90-542), enacted by the U.S. Congress to preserve certain rivers with outstanding natural, cultural, and recreational values in a free- ...
. One 4,200-acre area near the Creek, 44 miles southeast of Price, Utah, contains the prehistoric hamlets of the
Fremont culture The Fremont culture or Fremont people is a pre-Columbian archaeological culture which received its name from the Fremont River in the U.S. state of Utah, where the culture's sites were discovered by local indigenous peoples like the Navajo and ...
, people who lived in the area between A.D. 200 and 1300.Secrets of the Range Creek Ranch
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Prehistory

The Range Creek
canyon A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tendency to cut ...
was first publicized in 2020 as an area with pristine
archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscape ...
remains and rock art of the
Fremont culture The Fremont culture or Fremont people is a pre-Columbian archaeological culture which received its name from the Fremont River in the U.S. state of Utah, where the culture's sites were discovered by local indigenous peoples like the Navajo and ...
, a precontact Great Basin archaeological culture that was contemporaneous to the Ancestral Pueblo culture located to the south.


Discovery of ruins and artifacts

A cattle rancher owned the 4,200 acres of land along the Creek by the name of Waldo Wilcox. He recognized the value of the prehistoric remains and protected them by erecting a gate with "no trespassing" signs on the only road in. He kept the artifacts a secret. There were many, according to ''Smithsonian'':
Pit houses dug halfway in the ground, their roofs caved in, dotted the valley floor and surrounding hills. Arrowheads, beads, ceramic shards, and stone-tool remnants were strewn all over. Human bones poked out of rock overhangs, and hundreds of bizarre human figures with tapered limbs and odd projections emanating from their heads were chiseled on the cliff walls ... the pit houses were intact ... and granaries were stuffed with corncobs a thousand years old.
In 2001 he sold the property to the
Trust for Public Land The Trust for Public Land is a U.S. nonprofit organization with a mission to "create parks and protect land for people, ensuring healthy, livable communities for generations to come". Since its founding in 1972, the Trust for Public Land has compl ...
, which later deeded it to the state of
Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to its ...
. Wilcox retained the rights to any subsurface mineral and energy deposits. State archaeological developed a plan for carefully protecting and studying the cultural resources of Range Creek. Interest was high due to the undisturbed nature of the site. In December 2009, the State of Utah turned over stewardship of Range Creek to the
University of Utah The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of D ...
archaeology staff in a land swap deal. Research completed in 2006 indicated that the land included 1,000-year-old hamlets of the Fremont people "highly mobile hunters and farmers who lived mostly in Utah from around A.D. 200 to 1300 before disappearing..." As of early 2020, The Natural History Museum of Utah at the University of Utah was managing the property as the "Range Creek Field Station". A report at the time stated that the "vast majority of the sites recorded to date are associated with the Fremont archaeological complex, which dates between about A.D. 500 and A.D. 1350". The property was open to day-trip visitors for a nominal fee, with a pass—for a specific date --- available for purchase in advance, online; only a limited number of passes were issued for each day. Only pedestrian and horse traffic was allowed to enter the site, and only via the north gate. (The Creek site is surrounded by BLM land, which is "part of a wilderness study area, which prevents mechanized travel".) Primitive camping was allowed outside the gate. There were no services or cell phone service in Range Creek Canyon; high temperatures in summer, and black bears, were of concern. The north gate of the Range Creek Canyon, where parking was available, is on "a steep and narrow unimproved road" which is impassible during wet conditions and requires a high clearance vehicle, preferably with a 4-wheel drive. Guided tours were available from three companies. The Range Creek Research Project was underway, though not during summer 2020.Range Creek - Frequently Asked Questions
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See also

*
List of Utah rivers This is a list of rivers in the U.S. state of Utah in the United States, sorted by watershed. Colorado River The Colorado River is a major river in the Western United States, emptying into the Gulf of California. Rivers are listed upstrea ...
*
List of tributaries of the Colorado River The principal tributaries of the Colorado River of North America are the Gila River, the San Juan River, the Green River, and the Gunnison River. Tributary tree The following is a tree demonstrating the points at which the major and minor ...
*
Fremont culture The Fremont culture or Fremont people is a pre-Columbian archaeological culture which received its name from the Fremont River in the U.S. state of Utah, where the culture's sites were discovered by local indigenous peoples like the Navajo and ...


Sources

* Smithsonian, March 2006, "Secrets of the Range Creek Ranch", pp. 68–75.
Great Outdoors siteState of Utah siteWild river status
"Finding History in Range Creek" *


References

{{authority control Rivers of Utah Tributaries of the Colorado River in Utah Archaeological sites in Utah Rivers of Emery County, Utah Fremont culture Wild and Scenic Rivers of the United States Tributaries of the Green River (Colorado River tributary)