November 27, 2008

The Indian Museum

About 20 miles south of Richfield there is an Indian museum which my brother Rob told us about. We started the day with a stop there. Originally I had been planning on working while Lexie took the kids in but my curiosity got the better of me and I went in with the family. I was glad that I did. If I had ever heard about the Fremont Indians I had forgotten about them. The museum was small but very well organized with some great displays. There was a lot of detail explaining how current theories about the ancient people were developed. The thing I found most interesting was a model of one of the ancient inhabitants recreated from a skull. There is a technique developed by forensic investigators trying to identify murder victims which measures features in the skull to determine muscle thickness. Clay is over layed to replicate the muscle tissues to develop a face shape. Relatives of victims on whom this technique has been used say the results are eerily accurate, much like looking at a photo. We can be reasonably certain we were looking at a model of a face that was much like the face of the person that lived in the canyon about a thousand years ago. I was also very interested in the pit houses. Although the pit houses were very similar to hogans in a lot of ways, their dug in structure seemed more appealing to me. We were pleased to find that there was a model pit house outside which we could explore. I was surprised by the temperature difference between the inside and outside of the pit house.

There was a model pit house outside.

Lexie and Jacob make their way into the pit house.

Dallin notices the sun light on the wall.

Ty going up the ladder of the pit house.

Something very impressive about the museum that I failed to get in pictures was the quality of the petroglyphs around the museum. I am not sure I have ever seen as many at such a high quality so close together. It is interesting to me to think that those were their blog of the time. In a thousand years it is easy to think that this blog will be much less readable. With that said I am not quite ready to carve a picture of my trailer with an eagle over it into a cliff.

Traveling

After the museum we got off the interstate and took state highway 89 with the thought that we would take a peek at Bryce Canyon. By the time we got to the intersection with highway 20 we decided to abort the plan in order to keep the day simple and avoid being at a high elevation when the predicted rains came the next day. We resolved that we owed ourselves a couple of months in Southern Utah at some date in the future but that for now it would be better to get into warmer weather. We pulled into a Wal-Mart in Cedar City at about 4 PM. We were behind on shopping and it was 6PM by the time we finally got out. After a scan for no overnight parking signs didn't reveal any, we decided to make the Wal-Mart parking lot camp for the night and head for St. George first thing in the morning.

On our trip through St. George last February when I had just quit my job at AMIS we camped at the Sand Hollow State Park. For everywhere we have been this camp site is Dallin's favorite and ranks high on my favorites as well. We were pleased to get the camp site right next to the one we used in February. We decided that we will spend Thanksgiving and the weekend here. Next week will be split between here and going to Las Vegas for Jeremiah's wedding.

Politics

In as much as I have failed to properly sway the election and I have expressed my gripe, until further notice I will not be including a political section in the blog. Oh yeah, while I still have a headline that says politics, I will share joke I heard from my cousin. There are some now calling us the USSA.