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Frio Point 200 B.C. to 600A.D.

Mountains of Stone

Mountain
Man

North West
Token

Beaver Pelt

Bead Work

Grey Owl

Backrest


Wampum

Cooking Pot

Horn Spoon

North West
Coat of Arms

Stone Hammer

Seed Beads

Plainview Atlatl Point
8150-8010 B.C.

There are thirty-three historical articles on this site. The articles cover Pre-historic Indians, Anasazi and Fremont Indians, Lewis and Clark, David Thompson, Mountain Men, Plains Indians Horses, Smallpox, and Alcohol, Oregon and Mormon Trail, Martin Willey Handcart Companies, Western Expansion and Manifest Destiny to the Oregon Country and California, Forest Fires.  All of the articles contain Pictures, Maps, and based on Historical Facts.

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Barrier - Horseshoe Canyon Indian Rock Art
by
O. Ned Eddins

Fremont Indians    Fremont Rock Art   Anasazi    Buckhorn Wash
Sego Canyon      Prehistoric Indians       

Not far from Utah’s Goblin Valley State Park, Barrier Canyon is located in the Maze District of Canyonlands National Park. On recent maps the name has been changed to Horseshoe Canyon. Barrier Canyon style rock art is found on the canyon walls of the northern Colorado Plateau in southeastern Utah, western Colorado, and northern Arizona.

Out of the mid-Archaic Period, a group of Indians appeared in the Canyonlands area of Utah that are classified as Barrier Canyon Indians. This classification is based on rock art and dated by clay figurines found by Dr. Jesse Jennings of the University of Utah in Cowboy Cave. Cowboy Cave is about eight miles beyond the Great Gallery in Barrier Canyon. The clay figurines found in Cowboy Cave match the style of some Barrier Canyon painted images.

                                                     Barrier Canyon Trailhead

  
                                                        Trail into Barrier Canyon

  
                                                April Rains in Barrier Canyon

 
                                                      Barrier Canyon Ruins

Unique to the Southwest, the Barrier Canyon rock art is regarded by many as finest rock art in the United States. The Great Gallery in Barrier Canyon is more than three-hundred feet wide with over sixty figures.

The Barrier Canyon, or Horseshoe Canyon, rock art style consists of larger-than-life-size anthropomorphic (manlike) figures. The identifying characteristics of these figures are vacant looking or missing eyes, the frequent absence of arms and legs, and the presence of vertical body markings (Horseshoe Canyon Archeology).

 
                                                   Barrier Canyon Great Gallery

 Archeologists speculate that the life-sized human-like figures (anthropomorphic images) were painted by different individuals across an extended period of time. Despite this several thousand year period, there are very few occurrences of images being painted over by other Indians. To me, this indicates the spiritual, or mystical, significance of these Prehistoric Indian sites to the Fremont, Anasazi, and the historic Indians that followed.  As far as that goes, anyone that visits these sites will feel an aura of the Great Mystery.

                                                      Barrier Canyon Holy Man

 
                                                       Barrier Canyon Animals

 These mountain sheep and deer with the hunters carrying spears on the left end of the Great Gallery site were probably added at a much later date than the typical Barrier anthropomorphic figures.

The Great Gallery area has several distinct panels. Not all of the art panels are from the same time period (Jacobs). Horseshoe Shelter contains a mixture of Barrier, Anasazi, and Fremont rock area. 

Horseshoe shelter was under a huge rock alcove, much of which has broken off. Based on the rock art and other artifacts, this site was used as a shelter for thousands of years.

                                                  Horseshoe Shelter - Fremont

Buckhorn Wash

Barrier Canyon style rock art and Fremont petroglyphs panels are located in Buckhorn Wash east of Huntington, Utah.

 
                                                                 Buckhorn Wash

 
                                                             Restored Panel

This panel was covered with bullet holes and initials. It was restored in 1996 by Emory County and the BLM.

                                            Buckhorn Wash Cottonwoods

                                                               Buckhorn Angels

                                                  Mexican Hat - San Rafael River

The stream in Buckhorn Wash drains into the San Rafael river across from Mexican Hat.

Sego Canyon

The Sego Canyon rock art site is at the end of an oiled road north of Thompson, Utah. This is an excellent site to see Barrier, Fremont, and historic Indian panels.

                                                         Barrier Canyon Style

    
                        Fremont petroglyphs imposed on older Barrier Canyon pictographs

  
                                               Sego Canyon Historic - ~ 1800's

Horses were brought to Mexico by Cortez in 1519, and onto the Great Plains by Coronado in 1540, but it is doubtful if horses reached the Canyonlands area before the late 1700's. The first known horses in this area were the horses with Dominguez-Escalante Expedition in 1776.

The Barrier Canyon article was written by O. Ned Eddins of Afton, Wyoming. Permission is given for material from this site to be used for school research papers.

Fremont Indians    Fremont Rock Art   Anasazi    Buckhorn Wash
Sego Canyon      Prehistoric Indians       References

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Mountains of Stone contains an abridged account of the important aspects of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, as well as, some of the major Hudson's Bay and North West Company explorers. The extensive bibliography for Mountains of Stone served as background information on the articles for this website.          

There have been many requests for copies of pictures from the website. The best website pictures, and others from Jackson Hole, Yellowstone, and Star Valley, Wyoming, have been put on a CD. The pictures make beautiful screensavers, or can be used as a slide show in Windows XP. When ordering Mountains of Stone, request the CD and I will send it free with the book. To view a sample of pictures, click on...

                                      
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 References:

Barnes, F. A and Pendleton, Michaelene. Canyon country prehistoric rock art: An illustrated guide to viewing, understanding and appreciating the rock art of the prehistoric Indian cultures of Utah, the Great Basin and the general Four Corners region. Wasatch Publishers, Salt Lake City, Utah. 1989.

 Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The fates of Human Societies. W.W. Norton, New York, N.Y. 1996.

Koppel, Tom. Did They Come By Sea? American Archeology Magazine, Spring. 2002.

Madsen, David B.. Exploring the Fremont. Utah Museum of Natural History/University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah. 1989.

Schaafsma, Polly. The Rock Art of Utah. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, Utah. 2004.

Stone, Tammy. The Prehistory of Colorado and Adjacent Areas.  University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, Utah. 1999.

Taylor, Allan. American Colonies: The settling of North America. Penguin Books. New York, NY. 2002.  

Internet Sources:

Archeology of Horseshoe Canyon
www.nps.gov/cany/horseshoe/     

Barrier Canyon Rock Art
http://www.jqjacobs.net/rock_art/barrier1.html

Jacobs, James Q - These are excellent sites.
http://www.jqjacobs.net/rock_art/ne_utah1.html
http://www.jqjacobs.net/photos/