Looking for Ogden, Willard, and Connor Springs rock art

I've heard from a few people/locations lately about some more northern Utah rock art spots. The problem is, I can't find the beta for it other than the initial info that it's there. Can anyone help me with some info!?

There's rock art above Ogden. I've heard it's near 21st St. Anyone got any further info?

How about Willard? It's there- there's just not much info telling me where.

One last spot is Connor Springs- between Corinne and Promontory/Golden Spike NHS. I've seen pictures of petroglyphs on boulders/outcroppings. The most I can dig up is that it's on top of one ridge and there's not any on the other ridges nearby.

Thanks!

There is some info in this article about the glyphs. I actually went out to find the Connor Springs glyphs but found out that they are on ATK property so unless you have someone that can get you access those won't be possible to see. I know of some "mystery glyphs" that are above 21st street. From the article, it looks like most of the glyphs are in caves above Willard. Let me know if you plan a trip to go looking for them. I'd like to tag along. I live fairly close to Willard.

WILLARD, Utah (AP) - Devil Man is fading. Running Deer is almost gone. Some figures in Snake Cave are almost unrecognizable.
After 1,000 years concealed in caves that now overlook Willard Bay, these Fremont pictographs have suffered over the last 30 years.
So a group of amateur archaeologists, the Promontory-Tubaduka chapter of the Utah Statewide Archaeological Society, got together recently to photograph, draw, GPS, map and just look at the paintings in six caves - before they're even harder to see.
Some of the paintings - smeared red ochre pigment depicting bighorn sheep, deer and warriors - have been obscured by smoke from recent campfires. But most of the fading has been weather-related.
"The wet years we had back in the middle '80s just hammered these," said Mark Stuart, chapter president and trip leader.
Stuart first explored the area in the 1960s, finding ancient drawings in four caves along the shoreline of old Lake Bonneville. At the tail end of his last trip there, a few months ago, he discovered a fifth cave. And Boy Scouts along on that trip found another nearby, one that Stuart never saw.
"I've come up here for 40 years, and every time I come up, I see something new," Stuart said.
This time the something new was that sixth cave, home to painted bird tracks, humans, snakes and other animals - in all, about 15 figures etched in a cave accessible only by a short, moderately difficult scramble.
Stuart led the July 30 outing in an effort to record the sites, new and old, for inclusion in the Intermountain Antiquities Computer System, a database of more than 50,000 archaeological sites in the Intermountain West.
"What we're doing is called recon," Stuart said. "We're just trying to tie up some loose ends."
Nine chapter members - from Tremonton, Eden, Morgan, Ogden and Kaysville - showed up for the trip. Rob Hadley of Morgan left satisfied.
"Wow. You look at it from down here and there's nothing there," Hadley said at the trip's end. "But you get up in there and there's rock art all over."
But don't go there looking for the Top of Utah version of Newspaper Rock. Moab's most famous rock art site boasts hundreds of drawings created over more than 1,500 years. Willard's paintings are all from one era, the Fremonts, who inhabited the Top of Utah from roughly A.D. 1000 to 1300. Each site has no more than two dozen separate figures, half of which could be missed by an untrained eye.
"It's fabulous, just an amazing site," Stuart said as he sketched in a notepad his version of a depiction of a man next to several almost-invisible circles. He made the sketches because the paintings were too faded to show up on camera.
But this is his first record of a cave he walked past "probably 40 times" in about 40 years of visits. That's where the excitement comes from: finding another spot where local hunter-gatherer-farmers camped 1,000 years ago in their search for game.
There are some explicit symbols recorded in one cave. Stuart called them "sex objects." Jo Harline, of Ogden, opted for "fertility symbols," a sacred plea for healthy offspring.
But most of the paintings seem to be designed to help the hunter find game.
Archaeological studies have concluded that some Fremont Indians spent most of their lives as farmers; others were almost exclusively hunter-gatherers; and still others may have spent some time in each category.
Fremonts farmed much of the land around the Great Salt Lake, especially where streams entered. The population peaked in the 1100s, and farming ceased during a serious drought in the 1300s.
Archaeologists debate whether Shoshones and other American Indians descended from the Fremont or if the people moved or died at the end of the civilization. Shoshone tradition links them with the Fremont.
The early Mormons gravitated to the same fertile areas inhabited by the Fremont. The remains of Fremont villages lie under Ogden, Willard, Farmington and nearly every other early Mormon settlement.
A large Fremont village that survived the early settlement period was bulldozed during the creation of Willard Bay, and smaller sites were lost to Interstate 15, but the rugged hunting camps above have remained immune to development.

I emailed ATK. We'll see if they write back.

Maybe the "mystery glyphs" are the same as the petroglyphs above 21st st?

Any better info on the Willard area? I'm reading a book right now that goes into the Fremont townsite in the area that was excavated then flooded with the creation of Willard Bay.

Let me know if you hear anything back from ATK. I haven't been able to get a whole lot of info abou the rock art around Willard. From what I have gathered, it is located in caves above the town. Here is a picture of the mystery glyphs that are above 21st street in Ogden.

Attachment 49854

I know there are some pictographs in one of the canyons near Lagoon also. I believe someone posted pics of them on Bogley a while back. I'll see if I can find the thread.

Hi guys,

I've been looking for the rockart in Willard also. I have a photo from a book and I have been trying to get there and 'match' the photo to the background to get myself in the right area. Weather has NOT been cooperating! If you guys are trying to find it i would love to tag along. I'm near that area myself.

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Originally Posted by manicpainter

Hi guys,

I've been looking for the rockart in Willard also. I have a photo from a book and I have been trying to get there and 'match' the photo to the background to get myself in the right area. Weather has NOT been cooperating! If you guys are trying to find it i would love to tag along. I'm near that area myself.

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What book was it that you found the photo/info in? I'd like to check it out.

There are a few color photos in "Traces of Fremont: Society and Rock Art in Ancient Utah" by Steven R. Simms. It also has pictures of Connor Springs.

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Originally Posted by Deadeye008

I know there are some pictographs in one of the canyons near Lagoon also. I believe someone posted pics of them on Bogley a while back.

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Here is the beta on the Parrish Canyon pictographs.

http://climb-utah.com/WM/parrish.htm


http://climb-utah.com/WM/Files/parrish04.jpg

FYI: I have also been told there is rock art in the next canyon north of Parrish, but I haven't looked for it yet.

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Originally Posted by uintahiker

There are a few color photos in "Traces of Fremont: Society and Rock Art in Ancient Utah" by Steven R. Simms. It also has pictures of Connor Springs.

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Yes, that's the book I have. You can see enough background in both that I think with a bit of hiking around I could get near the spot.

I contacted Francois Gohier who is the photographer that took the pictures for that book. He said that he couldn't give exact directions to the places because it was a lone trip that he went on and it was several years ago. He did say that he recalled some of the rock art was on top of a boulder which is on a slope a couple hundred yards above a paved road that is a bit South of Willard. The other site he remembered was in the same general area and had a red anthropomorph and a wavy line terminated by a circle. He said they are in a big overhang in a rocky outcrop.

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Originally Posted by Deadeye008

I contacted Francois Gohier who is the photographer that took the pictures for that book. He said that he couldn't give exact directions to the places because it was a lone trip that he went on and it was several years ago. He did say that he recalled some of the rock art was on top of a boulder which is on a slope a couple hundred yards above a paved road that is a bit South of Willard. The other site he remembered was in the same general area and had a red anthropomorph and a wavy line terminated by a circle. He said they are in a big overhang in a rocky outcrop.

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I've driven around looking for where it might be, and I think it's probably underneath the Willard Peak lookout parking spot. There's some craggy rocky areas there above the bench area that look interesting, and line up a bit with the pic.

I got some more info from Francois.


Justin,

Thank you for your comments on my photos.

I have been thinking about how to help you with the location of the Fremont images in Willard area. I know I would find them again if I was there but I have a bit of difficulty remembering -or explaining - from here.

I still think the square (cubic, rather) boulder with the petroglyphs, is somewhere south of Willard, on the slope, but I cannot visualize the place. So just keep in mind it's a rather big boulder; it's located just below a steep and not very conspicuous trail that starts somewhere above the paved road at the bottom of the slope.

As for the painted site, we parked the vehicles in a rather large gravel pit, which is up a short distance from the bottom of the slope, and there are some newer houses in the area. But that is not necessarily close to Willard, I just don't remember.

From the gravel pit a horizontal dirt road follow the slope to the south.. I remember someone saying that road was going to some water reservoir or tank; there may be a small canal along the road itself, and there is a fence and gate on the road a few hundred yards south of the gravel pit, where we would have had to park (blocking the gate) if we had driven there.

We continued another 100 or 200 (?) yards on the road and then climbed up the slope diagonally to the SE towards the rocky outcrop. There are some trees around the outcrop and the slope is quite steep.

That's the best I can describe it. I have driven I 15 several times since my visit, and each time was able to visually locate the sites. I may go to Logan in April or May; if I do I'll try to get some landmarks that could help you find them.

Meanwhile, good luck !

Francois Gohier


Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using Tapatalk

Emailed the book author. Info back:

Yes, the Thiokol rock art both at Connor Springs and the mixing plant are restricted to permission and supervised viewing. There is abundant rock art above Willard from Willard Canyon south, some high on the slopes and other panels close to the Hwy 89. Most is very faint. I would suggest getting in touch with the USAS Ogden group. Mark Stuart sometimes takes the group up to Willard to see the panels there. They are having a meeting soon, and I pasted their email announcement below along with their web site address.

http://www.utaharchaeology.org/

Perhaps you already know about the Utah Rock Art Research Association.

http://www.utahrockart.org/


Steve Simms

Attachment 51486

The truth is out there...

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Originally Posted by uintahiker

Attachment 51486

The truth is out there...

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Nice!

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7187/6...8f704f70_b.jpg
Devil Man watches over Willard by Deadeye008, on Flickr

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7185/6...206149e3_b.jpg
IMG_3787.jpg by Deadeye008, on Flickr

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7065/6...902882f5_b.jpg
Small Goat(About 3 inches long) by Deadeye008, on Flickr