Just an aside about the vandalism issues.
Just an aside about the vandalism issues.
We have a friend here in Las Vegas who is part of a national "posse" of people tasked with safeguarding petroglyphs and pictographs in the Mojave Desert. Each member is responsible for one specific art installation and they are sworn to keep the location secret. They even agree not to tell their spouses or close friends the location. Once a month, depending on weather, they drive/hike to their "art" and check on the condition. They are allowed to tell someone that they are heading out there and given a rough GPS location, in case they don't return on time.
This posse currently has an inventory that is reputed to number in the hundreds. I personally know of a dozen places that are not listed on any map and most are within an hour or two of Las Vegas. In some places in the Mojave, I doubt it is possible to walk more than 30 minutes in any direction and not find more examples of this ancient graffiti. One such place is an about hour from my house and it is a place where kids (boys) have been going for millennia for practice shooting. In the parking area (wide spot in the road), it is possible to find .22 shells and arrowheads in close proximity.
In the near-by Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, are a very number of petroglyphs who routinely get hit by spray can-wielding assbites. Local volunteers have formed a team of dedicated cleaners who are proficient at removing modern graffiti while not damaging (too much) the underlying rock art. I have some representative photos someplace. I will try and find them and post here.
In the meantime, here is a Mountain Sheep (possible depiction) found in Sloan Canyon about 30 minutes from my house.
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...loan_Three.jpg
Photo by Deborah Wall, published in Base Camp Las Vegas: 101 Hikes in the Southwest.
Mark
A lot of bull (in a good way!)
So, I might as well let the cat all the way out of the bag. These amazing panels are in a place called Sego Canyon, a couple of miles north of Thompson Springs, just off I-70, and not far from Arches National Park. I've never been there, but I plan to go!
I can't believe something as spectacular as those life-sized pictographs are on private land! Is it just that particular panel that's fenced off? How close is it to the rest of them? Since the main grouping is marked on the map, I assume those panels in your other photos are on State land(?), and quasi-protected? Please tell me the pock-marks on the figures aren't the result of some sub-human s#@& with a rifle using them for target practice!?
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...8711825d_c.jpg
On a lighter note, here's one for you (or anybody else who thinks they recognize this particular bovine. Note: for purposes of orientation, he's facing left, he has a long body, and his horns curve upward.
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog..._4274-crop.jpg
Rick
That stuff is everywhere!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mark Sedenquist
We have a friend here in Las Vegas who is part of a national "posse" of people tasked with safeguarding petroglyphs and pictographs in the Mojave Desert.
Mark
My neighbor across the street is part of the same group, and he works in the desert north of Phoenix. Another friend in Tucson was prowling around the desert near there, and got caught on restricted land. They gave him a choice of paying a fine for trespassing, or joining in the conservation efforts. He chose the latter, and he's been involved ever since. There are literally tens of thousands of sites in the southwest that are of pre-historic significance, ranging from potsherds at an ancient campsite to entire cites, like Chaco Canyon. When you look at the totality of what's out there, you begin to realize how little we really know about the ancient past.
Rick
We've got Red Bull. They had a Blue Bull!
Actually, I suppose it would be a little too easy for someone to Google "Blue Bull," and come up with the location, which is the "Blue Bull Cave" in the Canyon del Muerto branch of Canyon de Chelly National Monument. but honestly, you won't see many pictures (on Google, or anywhere else) that show the actual bull as clearly as this shot, because it's ultra-rare to see it when the sun is low enough to provide natural light beneath the overhang:
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog.../Blue-Bull.jpg
Here's a wider shot of the cave and the largest rock art panel:
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...s/DSC_4246.jpg
And here's a couple of close-ups with some detail, nice and sharp. These are the images you'll most commonly see associated with Blue Bull Cave.
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog.../BlueBull2.jpg
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...s/DSC_4271.jpg
Here's what my Navajo friend had to say about this place. (Note: this is a literal transcription of a taped conversation):
"That's the Blue Bull right there, and here's the antelopes, you can see some antelopes here and there's some horse riders there. See, this one's different, because the horse’s hooves aren’t just circles, and there's more detail, like blankets on the horses. This is Navajo right here, and these are Anasazis on this side. A lot of them are pretty much drawn over, like right here you can see they're drawn over the older ones. So a lot of these drawings are probably dated way way way back. The ones that are more distinct are newer, probably around 700 to 1250 AD. And you can tell that this one has like feathers; the feathers came from the south. The Anasazi, when they were living here they were living peacefully. But then they started trading, and South American Indians started coming up this way, and then they started to marry into the culture. When you see the head-dresses with feathers, they were actually from those people.
South American Indians?
Oh, yes. They traded with the Anasazi people, and when they traded with them, they married into the culture. The Anasazi people did not know that the South American Indians were cannibals. They didn't know that, when they started to do these ceremonies. When they started to adopt those ways, they started becoming warlike, and they started to fight one another.
We always say, "What happened to the Anasazi people? Where did they go?"
When I was growing up, I asked my grandparents, “Where did these people go? We only see their drawings on the wall.”
What my grandparents used to tell me was, there was a big fire from the sky that happened, and it killed all the Anasazis. Or they would say, there was a big whirly wind that came, and took them.
The Blue Bull is Navajo, and you can see a warrior up here. Those are Navajos. See the feathers?"
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...s/Feathers.jpg
Is that cool, or what?
Now, someone else should take a turn!
Rick
