Nine Mile Canyon: The Archaeological History of an American Treasure

256 Pages·2013·14.28 MB·English

by  Jerry D. Spangler

Nine Mile Canyon

n i n e M i l e
CAn yo n
The
Archaeological
History
of an
American
Treasure
Jerry D. SpAngler
The University of Utah Press
Salt Lake City
iii
publication of this book made possible in part
by a generous grant from the Bill Barrett Corporation.
Copyright © 2013 by The University of Utah Press. All rights reserved.
The Defiance House Man colophon is a registered trademark of
the University of Utah Press. It is based on a four-foot-tall Ancient
Puebloan pictograph (late PIII) near Glen Canyon, Utah.
17 16 15 14 13 1 2 3 4 5
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Spangler, Jerry D.
Nine mile canyon : the archaeological history of an
American treasure / Jerry D. Spangler.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-1-60781-226-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
isbn 978-1-60781-228-9 (ebook)
1. Indians of North America—Utah—Nine Mile Canyon—Antiquities.
2. Petroglyphs—Utah—Nine Mile Canyon. 3. Rock paintings—Utah—
Nine Mile Canyon. 4. Nine Mile Canyon (Utah)—Antiquities. I. Title.
E78.U55S63 2012
709.01'1309792566—dc23
2012031967
Printed in China.
Contents
list of Maps vi
Acknowledgments vii
introduction ix
1. John Wesley powell and the Conundrum of nine Mile Canyon 1
2. Artifacts, exhibits, and Utah’s First Archaeologists 17
3. Defining the Fremont Culture: noel Morss, Harvard University, 37
and the Claflin-emerson expedition
4. on the Fringe of Science: 61
Albert reagan and the para-archaeologists
5. A Higher Scientific Standard: The Arrival of John gillin 85
6. rock Art, Settlement patterns, and a Broader Understanding 115
of nine Mile Canyon
7. Current perspectives on the prehistory of nine Mile Canyon 145
references 177
index 187
list of Maps
State map of Utah viii
Tavaputs plateau with major drainages 4
West Tavaputs plateau and nine Mile Canyon 6
vi
Acknowledgments
This book was made possible through the generous contributions of count-
less individuals: those who donated photographs, colleagues who offered
insightful commentary along the way, and experts who shared their own
unpublished research. And thank you to the many libraries and muse-
ums that opened up their archives to me. In particular, I want to thank
Dr. Steven LeBlanc and the Peabody Museum staff for their invaluable
assistance over the years as I have perused their collections time and again,
and who then generously contributed publication rights to their photo-
graphs. And a special thanks to the talented lens-smith Ray Boren, who
donated many of the Nine Mile Canyon photographs used here. And to
my lovely and patient wife, Donna, my muse.
vii
viii
introduction
Your appointment made today. Salary $2,100 and railroad expenses.
—George Thomas to John P. Gillin, 1935
The July 9, 1935, Western Union telegram confirming the appointment of
John Phillip Gillin, “Jack” to his friends and colleagues, as “instructor”
at the University of Utah’s Department of Anthropology and Sociology
may have seemed emotionless and succinct (Thomas 1935d). In real-
ity, it culminated weeks of animated correspondence between Gillin and
George Thomas, the president of the University of Utah, who had person-
ally and vigorously recruited Gillin to fill the lion-sized void left by the
departure of anthropologist Julian H. Steward. There are few clues as to
why a university president expended so much energy wooing Gillin when
there were probably other candidates more experienced in the archaeol-
ogy of the Great Basin and Colorado Plateau. Gillin was, at the time, rel-
atively unknown, a young man who hailed from a scholarly pedigree but
other wise was unseasoned in the archaeology of Utah or the West. He had
earned a doctorate from Harvard University the year before with a disser-
tation titled “The Barama River Caribs of British Guiana” (Gillin 1934a)—
hardly a topic of keen interest to most citizens of Utah.
But as head-scratching as the appointment might have seemed to casual
observers of university politics, it proved to have a profound impact on the
history of Utah archaeology. During Gillin’s short tenure at the University
of Utah—he abruptly resigned two years later to pursue his two real loves,
sociology and anthropology—he investigated dozens of archaeological
sites in almost every corner of the state, from St. George to Elsinore, from
Tooele to Marysvale, from Ephraim to Delta (see Gillin 1941). But it was
Gillin’s brief report of his excavations at Valley Village and Sky House in
opposite, State map of Utah.
Nine Mile Canyon (Gillin 1938) that firmly placed the young scholar in
the pantheon of eminent researchers—Noel Morss, Donald Scott, and
Julian Steward—who had earlier ventured into Nine Mile Canyon, only to
Introduction ix