THE WEST Land yields valuable clues about Indians

For years, the landowner jealously guarded the sites.
LOS ANGELES TIMES
RANGE CREEK CANYON, Utah -- For more than 50 years, Waldo Wilcox never told the secret of Range Creek. He shooed away the curious and allowed just a handful of scientists to explore his 4,000-acre ranch, deep in the narrow sandstone canyons of eastern Utah.
The ranch eventually was turned over to the state, and the remains were revealed Wednesday after archaeologists led reporters to the site.
The 74-year-old cowboy had been sitting on one of the most extensive ancient Indian sites in North America -- one whose archeological value, scientists say, rivals that of Mesa Verde in Colorado and New Mexico's Chaco Canyon. Granaries, stone houses, rock art and thousands of arrowheads from the Fremont Indian culture lay on lush canyon floors, atop cliffs and chiseled on stone walls.
Could solve mystery
Researchers say the sheer quantity of the material and its pristine condition may help answer one of the most enduring questions in North American archeology -- why did the Fremont, who lived between roughly A.D. 600 and A.D. 1300, disappear?
"The opportunities this site offers are unbelievable," said Kevin Jones, Utah state archeologist. "It's one of the most significant sites in America today; it's truly a national treasure."
In just the last few weeks, the site has offered up intriguing clues about the Fremont Indians' fate.
Archeologists have found dozens of granaries, or food storage areas, high on the cliff sides. "The fact that they would go to these lengths to build hidden granaries indicates that others might [have been] trying to get to them," Jones said.
One major theory is that invaders displaced the Fremont. Another is that drought forced them to move.
At Range Creek, the Fremont farmed corn, squash and beans and built hundreds of semi-submerged homes called pit-houses. The foundations of the houses are evident up and down the canyons. Many overlook open meadows, with cottonwoods swaying along slow moving streams. The earth nearby is littered with translucent arrowheads, bits of pottery and grinding stones.
What makes Range Creek so special, archeologists say, is its near-flawless condition. That's because of Wilcox, a blunt-talking cattle rancher with a penchant for Wrangler jeans and a passion for history.
Guarded sites
Wilcox bought the ranch in 1951. For years, he quietly enjoyed the Fremont sites while jealously guarding them.
When an archeologist would ask to explore the ranch, Wilcox agreed only if he could watch. He once evicted a scientist for hammering a petroglyph.
"I just thought it was something to be protected," said Wilcox, wearing a cowboy hat with a bit of horsehair sticking out the top. "I figured if I died, I wouldn't want some hippie digging up my dead body."
As he got older, Wilcox said, he was approached by the Trust for Public Land, the Bureau of Land Management and the state of Utah, asking if he would sell his ranch so the ruins could be preserved.
"I didn't really want to, but I figured if I died, I'd have no say in what happened to the land," Wilcox said, noting that he didn't want developers to get it.
About a year ago, he sold the land for about $2.5 million and moved to Green River, about 60 miles south. The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources now oversees the area.