Backroad Odyssey : Travel, Van Life & Lost Locations
Traveling America's backroads, history and road trip enthusiasts - Noah and Noodles - unearth fascinating locations overlooked while traveling.
Living out of a van, they research and visit each story location to share the (often shocking) secrets held within.
If you love travel, history and thoughtful storytelling - join us on the road!
Backroad Odyssey : Travel, Van Life & Lost Locations
Mysteries of the Utah Petroglyphs - Voices in Stone
Countless prehistoric images populate the landscapes of the American Southwest.
Some are meticulously engraved into stone, others carefully painted upon cave walls ...
The exact meaning behind many of these illustrations remain illusive.
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Embark on our exploration of the timeless rock carvings and paintings found in Capitol Reef National Park, Utah.
These are the mysteries of the Utah Petroglyphs!
Works Cited:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3628598?read-now=1&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
https://www.jstor.org/stable/27825077?read-now=1&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
https://www.jstor.org/stable/27696249
https://www.nps.gov/articles/seug-rock-markings.htm
https://www.blm.gov/blog/2021-03-25/petroglyphs-hidden-plain-sight-insights-prehistoric-rock-imagery-utahs-west-desert
https://www.myutahparks.com/things-to-do/attractions/utah-petroglyphs-pictographs/
https://www.hikingwalking.com/index.php/destinations/ut/ut_sc/capitol_reef/fremont_petro
https://historytogo.utah.gov/fremont-indians/
https://www.visitutah.com/places-to-go/parks-outdoors/capitol-reef/capitol-reef-petroglyphs
https://www.archaeologysouthwest.org/2023/03/08/why-i-no-longer-call-it-art/
https://www.southernute-nsn.gov/history/
https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec540sept12/2012/10/28/the-importance-of-petroglyphs/
Noah and Noodles here!
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Your support fuels our passion and inspires us to keep sharing stories and discover overlooked locations.
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Who's in Downey Street. I wonder where this road would lead. So many possibilities. Care to share what you think. Oh Noon Dolls, what do you see? Back Road Odyssey?
Speaker 1:We start with one simple question when an image is created and the original intent behind its creation is lost, does that creation lose all meaning? Or can something be found even in ignorance? Or can something be found even in ignorance? Countless prehistoric images populate the landscapes of the American Southwest. Some are meticulously engraved into stone, others carefully painted upon cave walls. The exact meaning behind many of these illustrations remain elusive.
Speaker 1:These are the mysteries of the Utah petroglyphs. Ancient rock paintings remind us that there are no unclaimed lands, that people have always lived here. They are wayposts along the river journey to the interior of the mind and heart, lynn Coldbreath-Nua. Let's start by defining key terms in what we will call rock imagery, petroglyphs and pictographs, starting with petroglyphs. Petroglyphs simply are rock carvings pecked directly onto the rock's surface, which exposes the lighter rock underneath. They are usually carved in places exposed to weather, so they are durable, unlike our next term pictographs. Pictographs are painting on rocks. They are frequently found in caves, where they are protected from the wear and the tear of weather, so they are not durable. And while these two methods differ slightly, one commonality is hard to overlook Whether petroglyph or pictograph, the precise meaning behind either one is ambiguous at best. Meaning behind either one is ambiguous at best. The Paiute word for them, tumpetuinup, is translated roughly as storied rocks, but even that is ambiguous. Are they religious in nature? Do they vary by culture? Are they just aesthetic, a storytelling device, communicativeative, ceremonial Noodles and I travel to southern Utah to find out.
Speaker 1:We are on our way to the petroglyph site in Capitol Reef National Park, something like 30 minutes away right now. Some contacts in the park. If you're not familiar, capitol Reef National Park is in the middle of kind of a chain of national parks in southern Utah spanning from places like the Canyonlands to Arches, to Bryce Canyon to Zion, and with all these amazing, amazing national parks concentrated in such a small area, capitol Reef is often overlooked. Capitol Reef is often overlooked what it lacks in visitors and notoriety maybe it more than makes up for in uniqueness, both in its landscapes colorful cliffs, towering rocks, intricate canyons, a lot of people dispersed camp here. That's where Noodles and I are planning to stay.
Speaker 1:But maybe most notable is the ancient petroglyphs carved into its textured red canyons. What images are even carved on the rocks? I don't know. Crazy, exciting. Who made these carvings? Why were these carvings made? And, more interestingly, perhaps can we ever know why the true mystery of the world is visible, not invisible? Oscar Wilde. Before we look into why these carvings were made, let's explore who we believe lived in the Capitol Reef area to create these petroglyphs in the first place.
Speaker 1:We begin with an ancient group of archaic foragers. When they meld with the population of emigrating Puebloan farmers, after a merging process that lasts around 500 years 0 to 500 AD roughly a distinctive culture emerges, now referred to as the Fremont culture. The Fremont culture tended to live in small groups, frequently encountered other populations, and gradually various groups of the Fremont culture merged, dispersed, left, returned, and this process was repeated over and over and over again in a process called residential cycling. Eventually, the Fremont people's reach became so large and spread out that groups derived from the same ancestral background begin to weave a wide ranging tapestry of ethnic groups, all with differing linguistic traditions and various lifestyles, from Utah to eastern Nevada and well beyond. There, the Fremont thrived, reaching their peak around the 11th century AD. And throughout all this movement, all the expanding distance, the growing differences, some ancestral ties remained. Most notably, the Fremont remained a culture tied together by comparable rock imagery, petroglyphs and pictographs. As time progresses, the Fremont eventually drift apart and solidify into groups that can be traced to some modern tribes.
Speaker 1:Oral traditions link the Fremont to the Zuni, paiute, navajo and many more. Throughout it all, all the change, all the time, the act of placing an image on stone persists, and so, whatever the reason for their creation, their importance and durability cannot be overlooked. The traditions of our people are handed down from father to son. Sarah Winnemaka, a citizen of the Paiute Nation. The most pristine and accessible example of the Capitol Reef petroglyphs can be seen just past the visitor center, but smaller petroglyphs remain scattered throughout the park and in more remote locations. Whatever the reason for these particular petroglyphs carved by the Fremont people, their presence continues to fascinate the many visitors that flock towards the site. Of what value are the objects of the past people, if we don't allow ourselves to be touched by them? They are alive, they have a voice, they remind us what it means to be human, that it is our nature to survive, to be resourceful, to be attentive to the world we live in. Terry Tempest Williams from Exploring the Fremont.
Speaker 1:All right, we've driven the length of the park, beautiful on its own, towering red rocks almost kind of otherworldly pillars that I've never seen before, winding roads that take you through it, all Just gorgeous landscape. After walking along a boardwalk that takes you right to the base of one of the giant red canyons that you see as you drive along, you see petroglyphs. You get to the end of the boardwalk, you look up and you see them. They're probably 20 feet past the end of the boardwalk.
Speaker 1:I'll do my best to describe what I see. They're anything but uniform. Each image is lighter than the surrounding rock. Once you carve into the stone, it exposes the lighter layer. So that's how the images are formed. Nothing that's carved would have required anything to stand on from where you are carving, from what I see right here. So no ladders or whatever equivalent enhancement would have been used to get higher off the ground In terms of imagery, and this is the most interesting part.
Speaker 1:Higher off the ground In terms of imagery and this is the most interesting part there's a group of small animals with horns, various abstract shapes, but I think for me what stands out the most, as I'm looking at it right now, is the semi-humanoid carvings which take up most of the space. These kind of humanoid images have kind of a trapezoidal body, sharp, square heads and intricate what looks like at least head dresses protruding from or cascading down from these square heads. Just fascinating. There's more, but that's what I see right now. But I'll pivot to this.
Speaker 1:Here's the question that keeps surfacing in my mind Without writing, without much datable evidence, without records pointing us towards the meaning of all of these symbols, can we even begin to guess the reason for these carvings? I don't know. I keep thinking about this. We have this tendency, much like our findings with the flathead monster a couple episodes ago, to see something and to let our imaginations run a bit wild. But anything beyond understanding the carving itself really is just guesswork, grounded in some research maybe, but still not as solid as some might like.
Speaker 1:Why, then, is it so hard to know exactly why these carvings were made? So hard to know exactly why these carvings were made? The fast answer is it's not a system of writing that can be decoded, translated and understood. They're images made by a certain group of people at a certain time. There's no Rosetta Stone. There's no decipherable connection between each image.
Speaker 1:Additionally, to complicate matters even more. There's no direct method of determining the age of either petroglyphs or pictographs, so consequently, the carvings themselves are nearly impossible to date accurately and consequently from that, nearly impossible to get context and interpret. Datable timbers and other organic artifacts thought to have been used by the petroglyph carvers can be used to attempt to date the carvings and provide a further context. But this also creates a very complicated and unique problem as well, and that is this Because of the vast amount of time that has passed, several distinct cultures could have passed through the petroglyph or pictograph location. It would be and could be, and is, temptingly easy to find a dateable pottery remnant around the rock image site, date it and claim that this provides the time and the culture that made these carvings. But the carvings could have already been there upon that culture's arrival. So, long story short, let's slow down. It's not easy, but it's not impossible Readably identifiable elements on relics like pottery that match rock images nearby that have a similar style or even the same image, and this is likely the luckiest and closest one could get to identifying the exact culture with an exact time period. All this is to say we don't know, but we can guess. It's better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.
Speaker 1:James Thurber, there could be many reasons behind rock image creation. To start, they should not be confused with symbols representing sounds. It is not a language system. At the same time, many petroglyphs are intentionally chosen and placed upon the rock, whether these placements are religious in nature. These placements are religious in nature. Many think ranking religious figures in that culture would carve these figures and shapes in a ceremonial way. Whether it's cultural, some say they are powerful reminders of stories and traditions passed down throughout the generations, markers of a tribe's presence or a proto-linguistic communication device, the movement towards a linguistic system. Symbols that connect to each other and convey meaning. Any of these is anyone's guess, and there are a lot more theories out there. Many are inclined to accept one theory over the other, but there is not, nor has there been, a large consensus by anyone we can say confidently it's not simple graffiti. They are cultural symbols made by complex societies in the Capitol Reef area, but most definitely well beyond. We also can say this with confidence Looking at the millions of people that are fascinated by these petroglyphs, by these pictographs, by all of these images. And that is this to ponder why rock images exist is to attempt to connect with the core of the cultures of the past.
Speaker 1:I'm back, hello. The boardwalk extends a short walk beyond the main petroglyph panel, which I described a bit earlier. On your left. You look up and you see continuing petroglyphs, but they're kind of sporadic. There's antlers, abstract shapes, but you also see modern carvings and graffiti throughout. And I'll say this, they're not easy to confuse. One seems deeply selfish, not respectful, frankly, carving over around these beautiful petroglyphs, and the other seems deeply, deeply intentional and symbolic for the culture that made them.
Speaker 1:Anyway, I digress a little bit. I'm right in front of another cluster of petroglyphs and can't help but think about the person that carved what I'm looking at right now, the carver. Whoever that person was, had a life, they had a society they belonged to, they had hopes, dreams. The specific reason for its carving, for me at least, starts to become less important when you think about that fact. The carving for me, having been here for 30 plus minutes, resonates the following words I was here, we were here For me. The specific implications of the carving all stem from that. We were here, we were people. We started with one simple question when an image is created and the original intent behind its creation is lost, does that creation lose all meaning For me? I'll say this Once an image is created, its creator was there and that in itself has meaning. It's Noah here.
Speaker 1:Thank you genuinely for listening to Backroad Odyssey. I appreciate every minute you spend with Noodles and I learning about the world, rather than go through my usual plugs for the show and beyond. Longtime listeners will know that I love the town of Asheville, north Carolina. It's one of my favorite spots in the nation. Yeah, I used to stay there right by the river.
Speaker 1:That's totally gone, and I reached out to people that live there that I respect and appreciate and they told me what the best way to help would be. They said far and away Beloved Asheville is the best way to directly get immediate needs to people. I'm going to read their message right here Our Hurricane Helene response, backed by your support, beloved Asheville is dedicating every resource to those most affected by the disaster. So this is locals looking at what needs to be done and getting it done. So if you're looking to help, this is how you could do it. Things always seem very far away. You don't think that it can affect places that you go to or people that you enjoy, until it does so, if you're looking for a way to help, just Google Beloved Asheville. That's Beloved Asheville, and they'll direct you in the right way. Other than that, take a breath with everything that's going on. Be good to each other. We're two next.
