There’s a lot of Native American rock art in Utah if you know what to look for. Enough that it’s difficult to track it all, which makes it vulnerable to accidental destruction from vehicles or guns, and sometimes vandalism.
This is where a group of third through eighth grade students from Blessed Sacrament Catholic School in Sandy come in.
Every Friday from April to September, they pile into cars with parental chaperones and teacher John McHugh. They drive 40 minutes to the western shore of Utah Lake near Saratoga Springs. That’s one of many places in the state that is covered in rock art.
McHugh teaches literature and science, but his master’s degree is in archeology. He started this club, affectionately known as the “Shovel Bums,” to make sure his students understood why this art is important to learn about and to preserve. The club name comes from a term usually used to describe undergraduate archeology students who have to do the grunt work that older archaeologists don’t like.
The survey site is Bureau of Land Management administered land – which means it's completely open to the public, whether or not they’re aware of the significance of the rocks that surround them.
Upon their arrival, the students donned yellow reflective vests to stand out in case anyone was ignoring the bullet-ridden “no shooting” signs nearby.
“As we're walking up, you're going to see all the bullet shells,” McHugh told his students “You're going to see all the bullet casings. You're going to see broken bottles that people were shooting at.”
They’ll also see some of the oldest rock art in the state. Just up the hill, McHugh pointed out a rock on the ground with what looked like an arrow etched into it.
“That's an atlatl. So this is very likely that this is older than the arrival of the bow in Utah, which is about 150 A.D. So it's older than that, this could be at least 2,000 years old.”
As she looked at another rock panel, third grader Lexie Wilkins observed that it “kind of looks like there’s a tree right here, but if you kind of look at it sideways, someone said that it looks like a bighorn sheep going upwards.”
The students are careful and thoughtful as they analyze the art. Afterward, they filled out a worksheet describing what they saw, and if there was any indication of damage or vandalism.
McHugh shares this information with Bureau of Land Management archaeologist Michael Sheehan, who adds it to a statewide database of rock art.
“There's no way he can check up on all this rock art. So they need someone to steward it to go out and make sure it's not getting defaced, make sure it hasn't been destroyed by a fire, for instance, or trucks, maybe people not realizing.”
Seventh grader Helene Mabanza has been part of the club for two years. She loves seeing rock art and learning about ancient North American history from it.
“The people took a lot of time and hard work to do it. So why destroy all that when it's, it's kind of like destroying the Mona Lisa.”
In the meantime, McHugh believes the students are gaining reverence for art and the great outdoors, something he hopes they’ll keep with them for the rest of their lives.
