Utah Heritage Foundation

Spring clean-up in historic Nine Mile Canyon is scheduled for Saturday, April 30th and the Nine Mile Canyon Coalition is seeking volunteers.

Where:  Cottonwood Glen OR the Nine Mile Canyon Myton kiosk

What time:  9:00 a.m.

The foundation remnants of the town of Iosepa (pronounced yo-see-pah) lay under the sand and dust of the west desert.  Once the home to over 200 Polynesian and Hawaiian settlers, a prominent marker and small cemetery provide the only physical reminders of a once successful enclave for South Sea Islanders.  As converts to the Mormon Church, Hawaiians came to be near the Salt Lake City LDS Temple but were ethnically discriminated against.  Not finding many places they could call home, the LDS Church purchased land in the Skull Valley of Tooele County, west of the Stansbury Mountains for the creation of a new settlement.  On the first day in 1889, 75 Hawaiians went to their new home, plotted home sites, and named it Iosepa, a Hawaiian name for Joseph after LDS Church founder Joseph Smith.

Though there were many successful years of growing the town, ultimately it became difficult to make a self sustaining community in the desert.  When the LDS Church announced in 1917 that a new temple would be built in Hawaii, the first outside the continental U.S., that was the end of Iosepa as the majority of the islanders left for home.  Though the settlement was not long lived, the traditions and efforts of those first South Sea Islands pioneers still run deep and are celebrated every year at the site during Memorial Day weekend.

This dig is a fabulous chance to interact with a prominent Utah site of ethnic history.  Join in the day of discovery!

After more than ten years of preparation, Timothy Scarlett led industrial archaeology students last summer to undertake the first major archaeological excavation of a pioneer-era Latter-day Saint pottery shop. In an illustrated lecture at the LDS Church History Museum, Dr. Scarlett will provide an overview of the scholarship of the Utah Pottery Project and explain last summer's discoveries at the site of the Davenport Family Pottery Shop in Parowan, Utah (1855-1888). The results of that excavation and ongoing laboratory research open a fascinating window into the challenges and struggles faced by Utah's nineteenth century potters and their families.

Dr. Scarlett has studied Utah’s immigrant pottery makers since 1998 and has also conducted research at sites in the Great Basin and Intermountain West, Southwest, Interior Alaska, New England, and the Mid-Atlantic regions of North America. He is the director of the Utah Pottery Project and co-director of the West Point Foundry Research Program. He is currently on the faculty at Michigan Technological University in the Industrial Heritage and Archaeology Program in the Department of Social Sciences.

Dr. Scarlett’s lecture coincides with the opening of a new temporary exhibit at the Church History Museum, Potters of the Gathering, where some of his own archeological findings are on display. The exhibit will be on display through November 5, 2010.

The lecture will be held in the Church History Museum auditorium this Friday, May 7th, at 7:00 p.m. The lecture is free to the public, and no tickets are required. The Church History Museum is located at 45 North West Temple Street in downtown Salt Lake City. For more information call (801) 240-4615.

Read Nine Mile pact: Agreement can ensure protection, Salt Lake Tribune, January 5, 2010

With ever more increasing tourism in Utah's backcountry being accessed by foot, bicycle, and atv, this timely article from July 28^th gives the native American perspective of modern archaeology.  It was written by our colleague Rebecca Schwendler, Ph.D., the public lands advocate in the Mountains/Plains Regional Office of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

View the video and read the full story here.

On Tuesday, I joined a group of agencies in a visit to Nine Mile Canyon.   I will admit it was my first time.  And I will admit it was incredible.

In just one day, I quickly understood how a massive area (in square miles and vertical ascent) is home to layer upon layer of Utah history dating back more than 3,000 years.  The archaeological resources are astounding - in number, type, and story.  The historic resources related to ranching give you another picture of an active community in the 1890s through the 1960s, led by dominant ranching families struggling to make a living with little water and changing federal policy.  Exploring the further linkage of the Buffalo Soldiers, who traversed the canyon on the way to Fort Duchesne, to ranching in Nine Mile will help give us a clearer picture of the untold Utah African-American history.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation listed Nine Mile Canyon in the 11 Most Endangered List in 2004.  Your support is needed to help protect this resource.  Visit the National Trust website to see how you can help.

The big news in the national preservation world has been in Utah.  As reported in both the Deseret News and Salt Lake Tribune, 24 people were arrested in Southeastern Utah and Colorado for vandalizing historic Native American sites by taking archaeological artifacts and selling them.  In general, the confiscation of artifacts and selling of that property are federal offenses of the Archaeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA), which many of the alleged are accused of participating.

Richard Moe, President of the National Trust for Historic Preservation stated in the Tribune, "This law enforcement action is a clear indication of the seriousness with which the Obama administration treats its responsibility as steward of our public lands."  I would add that archaeology doesn't always have to be this serious, it doesn't have to sting in the end, and can be a lot of fun to find and explore.

Yet despite many of the efforts by our public lands partners such as the National Trust, Bureau of Land Management, and Archaeology Division at the Utah State Historical Society to educate, it is unfortunate that many residents and visitors do not understand that archaeological resources are not for the taking. Please teach your children not to take remnants of Native American sites.  Not only because it's against state and federal law, but because without those pieces of history, interpretation of a site are lost forever.

Opportunities to explore these wonderful places and legally document and preserve archaeological sites are available by volunteering through the Utah Statewide Archaeological Society (USAS).