Quite a surprise.
When driving through the lava fields west of Fillmore,
UT, one Saturday morning, the landscape views encouraged us to roll down the
windows on the left side of the car even though the temperature was cool. Quickly one of the participants in the
adventure yelled STOP, which is a magical word for us. The three of us (we visit sites in small
groups believing that’s the best for preservation and continued enjoyment of
the site by others) got out of the car, inspected the black rocks from a
distance, then put on hiking shoes and gathered camera equipment.
A very nice experience awaited. Like many sites in central Utah, Paxson
Shearing Corral contains a number of well preserved images, plus many more that
are showing the degradation of sunlight, age, and wind. We did not observe any man made damage. There appears to be a lot of traffic to the
site, but I will leave it to the reader to determine if they believe that a lot
of traffic inhibits damage, or if they feel the site should be rarely visited
and kept secret (although a lot of rarely visited sites suffer damage because
scoundrels don’t feel they will be caught or interrupted). This preservation debate will continue to
eternity.
I suspect that the Paxson Shearing Corral images are a
mixture of Archaic and Fremont drawings, but that is the opinion of an amateur,
and you might judge the origin of the images differently.
The most interesting feature of the site to me is that
many multi-circular or concentric circle images are decorated with different
designs – both internal to the circles and on the periphery. This seems to be unique since we have not
observed this when we visited other sites in the general area.
We produced an ebook on the site since we enjoyed the visit
and felt that others might enjoy the experience also.
The Ebook is designed to provide information to:
A researcher, photographer, artist, or writer who wants to preview the site before a planned visitation to examine the Rock Art to be seen and determine that the site fits the Research Plan and Objectives.
A researcher, photographer, artist, or writer who wants to preview the site before a planned visitation to examine the Rock Art to be seen and determine that the site fits the Research Plan and Objectives.
A student of either Archaeology or Anthropology who has specific interest
in Rock Art.
Interested advocates who want to review the book prior to visitation to make sure the Rock Art at the site will be interesting to them.
If time is of essence, as on a vacation or a weekend, the more interesting sites can be visited, saving the other sites until later when more time might be available.
The Rock Art advocate whose objective is to “see all the sites” can use the Ebook to allocate their time to the most interesting sites and to the most interesting areas of a particular site.
And finally, the visitor who does not photograph or who visited with a malfunctioning camera, can obtain a permanent record of the site for their use.
From my viewpoint, the Ebook serves as a personal recording (digital photo) of the site. This recording will likely outlast me and serves as a forum to discuss the site attributes with researchers, scholars, and interested Rock Art advocates who desire more information.
Interested advocates who want to review the book prior to visitation to make sure the Rock Art at the site will be interesting to them.
If time is of essence, as on a vacation or a weekend, the more interesting sites can be visited, saving the other sites until later when more time might be available.
The Rock Art advocate whose objective is to “see all the sites” can use the Ebook to allocate their time to the most interesting sites and to the most interesting areas of a particular site.
And finally, the visitor who does not photograph or who visited with a malfunctioning camera, can obtain a permanent record of the site for their use.
From my viewpoint, the Ebook serves as a personal recording (digital photo) of the site. This recording will likely outlast me and serves as a forum to discuss the site attributes with researchers, scholars, and interested Rock Art advocates who desire more information.
If you wish more information, review
www.exploringrockart.com or contact us at exploringrockart@gmail.com.
For more information please review www.exploringrockart.com or contact us at exploringrockart@gmail.com.
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