It's been called The World's Longest Art Galley. Nine Mile Canyon cuts through the Book Cliffs Region and West Tavaputs Plateau of Eastern Utah, and the rock art it contains is intriguing and mysterious.
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| The Great Hunt. |
My curiosity is piqued when viewing The Great Hunt Panel. Who carved this? How long did it take? Was this done just to pass the time, or to convey information to passers-by? Is the figure between the sheep at the top of the panel a "god of the hunt"? Why is the hunter on the right—with bow and arrow—much larger than the hunters to the left and below him? A Dad and his sons hunting together perhaps? Why does a figure appear to be walking away from the hunt (lower right), and one of the sheep appear to be falling from the group?
Part of the mystery of rock art is that we'll never know the answers to these questions. The Fremont Indians who carved these figures lived in the canyon from 900 to 1200 A.D and then disappeared.
For one thousand years though, their outdoor artwork has endured.
Consider the panels below. In the first one a giant bison-like animal appears alongside smaller animals and a person or two. In the second one, people and animals are scattered about. And why is one person lying on his side? What are the scribblings between the two people and the animal in the center-right of the drawing? Are some of these chiselings just a type of ancient graffiti? Or could it be that the Fremont peoples continued to add to these al fresco drawings throughout their tenure in the canyon? More intrigue, more mystery.
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| Apparently, large buffalo used to live here. They were all exterminated by the European settlers. |
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| A lot of incongruous activity is going on in this scene. |
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| Picnic area under the shade of Cottonwood trees. |
When visiting Nine Mile Canyon during the spring, summer or fall, bring along a picnic lunch and relax for awhile. The shaded picnic area provides the perfect spot for pondering the fascinating works within The World's Longest Art Gallery.
