Long-Ago Artisans

People have lived in this landscape for over 12,000 years. Although few artifacts remain from the earliest inhabitants, they hunted animals, gathered wild plants, and migrated with the seasons. Early people likely traveled through Parowan Gap, but archaeologists believe most of the petroglyphs there were created much later by Indians known today as the Fremont. By about 500 A.D., during what archaeologists call the Fremont period, people were living in the Parowan Valley just east of the Gap in pit-houses and villages, growing corn and other staples, and making pottery. Researchers believe the people known as the Fremont, and as Nungwu by Paiutes, are closely related to the Hopi, Paiute, and other Southwestern tribes, and that they created most of the petroglyphs at Parowan Gap. Native Americans say petroglyphs are their written language, based on Indian sign language understood among tribes throughout North America, which helps explain symbol similarities across Utah and the Southwest. For centuries, the Paiute people made this region their home, hunting bighorn sheep, antelope, rabbits, and squirrels and gathering pinyon nuts, berries, and seeds, while some communities also grew corn and other crops. When non-native settlers arrived in the mid-1800s, Paiute life changed abruptly, and members of the Paiute tribe still live in this region today.

Utah · United States