Show B charles akell the following article appeared tn fn the magazine for callec tors the october 1935 issue A technically speaking is any sort of picture or design cut or pecked on rock surfaces by in dian than are found in all of the united states where there are smooth surfaced rocks or boulders boul deis but are much more clenti ful in the desert country of ble west and southwest they are particular ly numerous in the red sandstone country of the southwest e smooth sandstone walls tempted the artistry of ancient man some of the sandstone rocks of southwest are covered biti designs and pictures several thousand years old mr kelly proves this by div lot ing here at this point a photograph of a MAMMOTH found on the rocks near moab which must be several b thousand years old as they have not been here recently alost most of the designs were made by pecking or chipping the rock surface with a piece of flint or other hard material most of the designs are crude and meaningless to white men and modern indians all alil e while ot I 1 1 ers are very artistically done and their meaning self evident in the dry deserts of the south west food and water were the prime necessities of life with religion tak ing the third place it naturally fol lows that most of tie tae designs found on the rocks represent animal ures hunting scenes water symbols and what appear to be maps and wa ter noles and springs and depre of various mythol mythological figures connected with the ancient indians religious ceremonies I 1 became with mr prank beckwith of delta utah a bout fifteen years ago we had both started to make a collection of an chent indian found in this state and other parts of the west since that time our mutual hobby has taken us over thousands of miles of desert country searching tor for these anicent records of primitive man we have each worn out two automobiles and have separately or together visited every nook and cor her ner of utah and surrounding states where is might be found our combined collection is now p haps the of its kind to be found anywhere and photo graphs or drawings of every known in this territory we hope by careful comparison and study to some day decipher tie tae meanings of many of these ancient designs mr beckwith and I 1 firm ly believe that these ancient designs had a definite meaning and we have determined to do our best to dincov er their purpose we believe we have correctly interpreted several of the more common designs and hope hhope wita future study to be able to learn the meaning of many more the in this territory are of various ages dating from an dent clent times down to the coming of the white settlers we classify them into three general perlo periods ds the earliest made by the first ar rivals in this section are very crude and very dim there seems to be a long gap between that period and the next the second general peri perl od contains the most artistic work vork including a great many sym human figures in a variety of costumes dance ceremonials and some quite artistic bunting scenes the period shows designs care lessly made mostly animal figures with almost no ceremonial figures some of the sandstone cliff vails are completely covered with ands of pictures and designs the newer ct cit I 1 over the older sometime es a single group will be found cut on a lava boulder in some places the designs cut in the roa were partly painted IR ir two or more colors most of the paint has disappeared leaving only the carved portion vis ible in groups of the second period we sometimes find purely decorative designs such as were woven in bas has ke s or painted on pottery A great majority of the animal figures represent the mountain sheep which seems to have been the prin cli cil al food of t ie le ancient man in only one or two sections do we find ic ie presentations of the buffalo and deer art n 1 I common A few elk are rp represented resented and an occasional bear jai out the i buntain sheep outnumbers the tle others to 1 ahe finest single specimen ever found in the southwest we believe is near vernal utah where are still seen five human figures more than life size carved an a high cliff face they were originally colored with two or three kinds of paint f some ome of which still remains this group have a very impressive sight to the primitive men who saw it before the paint was washed away our combined collection of t iese numbers thousands of photographs and we are still col electing our aim Is to have the larg est collection of its kind in the world and it may be that we have alread achieved that objective tie best way to determine th atwould be to challenge anyone else to produce a greater number of personally col lecter photographs the collection of these prehistoric designs has been a very fascinating bobby hobby and has taken us into some of the most inaccessible bits of desert country to be found anywhere I 1 has given us an excuse to explore every nook and corner ot of the mountains and in doing so we have found rare bits of scenic beauty unknown and unsuspected by those who keep to the concrete |