Range Creek

For the river in Texas, see Range Creek (Texas).

Range Creek, rising in the Book Cliffs in Emery County, Utah, is a high tributary of the Colorado River. It flows into the Green River, a major tributary of the Colorado. The creek flows year around.

It has been nominated for classification as a National Wild and Scenic River.

Prehistory

The Range Creek canyon has recently become publicized because of its pristine archaeological remains and rock art of the Fremont culture, a precontant Great Basin archaeological culture that was contemporaneous to the Ancestral Pueblo culture located to the south.

Contemporary history

The land was owned by a cattle rancher by the name of Waldo Wilcox. He recognized the value of the remains that he saw with his own eyes and protected it by erecting a gate with "no trespassing" signs on the only road in. In 2001 he sold the property to the state of Utah but retained the rights to any subsurface mineral and energy deposits. State archaeological authorities are developing a plan for carefully protecting and studying the cultural resources of Range Creek. Interest is high due to the undisturbed nature of the site. In December 2009, the State of Utah turned over stewardship of Range Creek to the University of Utah archaeology staff in a land swap deal.[1]

See also

• List of Utah rivers
• List of tributaries of the Colorado River
• Fremont culture

Sources

• Smithsonian, March 2006, "Secrets of the Range Creek Ranch", pp. 68–75.
• Great Outdoors site
• State of Utah site
• Wild river status
• Wilderness Utah "Finding History in Range Creek"
• Scientific American Frontiers "The Secret Canyon"