Ohio River Petroglyph Rock

Grand jury indicts Ironton man over Indian Head Rock
Jun 19, 2008 @ 09:10 PM
By DAVID E. MALLOY The Herald-Dispatch

GREENUP, Ky. -- The battle between Ohio and Kentucky over the Indian Head Rock took a more serious twist Thursday when a Greenup County grand jury indicted an Ironton man on a felony charge of removing an antiquity.
The charge carries a possible prison sentence of from one to five years upon conviction.
Steve Shaffer, an Ironton resident, spent three years diving in the Ohio River for the eight-ton sandstone rock before finding it last summer in 16 feet of water and bringing it out of the river last September.
"I'm quietly amazed," Shaffer said Thursday at the charge against him. "I guess they consider me the ring leader. There was no criminal intent. This is just bizarre."
Shaffer and some divers from the Huntington area would dive in the Ohio River looking for the rock that has been submerged since 1920.
"We turned it over to the city of Portsmouth," he said.
The rock currently is stored in a city of Portsmouth garage. "A number of people are coming to see it."
The state of Kentucky wants to put the rock back in the river, Shaffer said. "It's ludicrous."
Greenup Commonwealth's Attorney Clifford Duvall told The Associated Press the case is not about the fate of the rock, but whether it was removed without a proper permit.
"What's important is that all of these things be protected and that the law of Kentucky be observed," he said.
Ohio State Rep. Todd Book, D-McDermott, said the indictment "seems a bit out of control."
The city of Portsmouth was going to remove the rock in 1908, he said.
"For them to do this, I don't know," Book said. "They must have too much time on their hands. I hate to see it go down this path. There's a fun way to resolve this, but they haven't chosen to do that."
"This rock tells stories about the people who settled this land, those who lived here, worked here and left their legacies for future generations to uphold," Book had said earlier. "We want to preserve history; the people fighting this in Kentucky just want to return the rock to its watery grave at the bottom of the Ohio River. This is too important a part of Portsmouth's history to allow that to happen."
Book has proposed having an annual competition between Kentucky and Ohio residents to determine who would get to display the rock for a year. He said there could be a rafting competition, a game of rock, paper, scissors, a tug of war or something along those lines on an annual basis.
The border battle over the rock has garnered national media attention in the New York Times and the "CBS Evening News." Officials in Frankfort have asked for the rock to be returned while officials in Columbus have met to ask Kentucky to relinquish its claim to the rock. The U.S. Supreme Court in the 1800s ruled that the Ohio River belongs to Kentucky up to the low water mark on the Ohio side in 1792. A series of dams has raised the river level over the years.
Shaffer admits the rock was closer to the Kentucky shore than the Ohio shore.
"It was lost ... forgotten," he said. "It was a lost piece of history. We wanted to solve the mystery. People from Portsmouth would go over and carve their names or initials on the rock. There are stories about it in the Portsmouth paper."
The rock also has a crude face that some claim is a petroglyph carved by an unknown American Indian. It was registered as a protected archeological object with Kentucky state government in 1986, according to The Associated Press.
Shaffer said an expert called in by the state of Kentucky, Dr. Fred Coy Jr. of Louisville, believes the carving isn't native American.
"He believes it was carved with metal tools," Shaffer said. "It's just not native American, it's graffiti. The names (on the rock) are from Portsmouth people."

An Interesting Archaeology Story

Rock with Petroglyphs possibly illegally removed. Rock was underwater when removed. Full size copy at www.exploringrockart.com.

Coalition to Preserve Rock Art March 19, 2008

COALITION TO PRESERVE ROCK ART

Jon Gum 1234 West Red Butte Washington, UT 84780

435-627-1086 preserverockart@gmail.com


The Coalition Progress Report March 19, 2008

The progress of the Coalition to Preserve Rock Art (CPRA) is now evident. The first key was to get the word out of our goals and objectives, then to follow with more information supporting the Awareness concept and more material to aid in the Education area. We then need to couple this with Actions or Implementation to see progress toward achieving the objectives.

CPRA’s membership is now well over 100 and we are now international with a new member from Germany. We are not limited to SW Utah, since our members have residences in Massachusetts, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, Moab, and other communities. Membership growth is presently due to the Internet (www.exploringrockart.com), to presentations such as that at the St. George Newcomer’s Club (over 15 new members), and to the Rock Art Class conducted by Boma and Kat Johnson (about 15 new members). Our expectations are that the critical mass we need is about 200 members so we will continue to contact interested citizens in Utah as well as work with Internet users and other friends of Rock Art.

Specifically:

We continue to support URARA and other organizations interested in Preservation by responding to the BLM Resource Management Plans in Utah. So far we have responded on Moab, Kanab, Richfield, Monticello, Price, and Vernal.

BLM has announced the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the West Tavaputs Plateau Natural Gas Full Field Development Plan. This could mean the drilling of up to 807 new natural gas wells in the Nine-Mile Canyon area. The Coalition will respond to the EIS (due May 1, 2008) and we hope to attend at least one Public Information Open House in the Price area if the BLM holds them as indicated. We urge all of our members to be active in responding to this EIS. Let me know if you want to be involved in responding to the EIS. Nine-Mile Canyon is a very important series of sites.

One of our favorite local sites is Telegraph Hill. The city of St. George now informs us that the entire development is platted out and that they cannot have a real impact in establishing a park or private area. We still intend to ask for a meeting with the developer and will ask that the city join us. We are not giving up yet but it is private property and we are unlikely to have a major success.

The difficulty in determining a way to preserve this site has resulted in discussions with a CPRA member who believes that promoting “Green Developers”, those who intend to preserve archaeology assets located on private property could be productive. We are going to try this or perhaps a similar approach that you might suggest. We intend to meet with a St. George developer who has preserved a pithouse area, might go to Kanab to meet with a developer, might meet with one in Moab, and will extract information from appropriate Press Releases that we can find. Our Green Developer program will endorse positive actions of developers and will include comments from a Real Estate Agent (a CPRA member) who firmly believes that the preservation of archaeology assets adds value to residential property. We want your thoughts on this program because if we embark on it, we will be seeking publicity outlets in all our represented communities. Our intention is to then show positive results to developers such as the one on Telegraph Hill and try to get a change in the direction in which they intend to go. We also seek your ideas regarding this approach. Maybe a “Green Developer” Plaque or a Certificate with a specially designed emblem? Any good designers? The results in Kanab, in Orem, and in Moab where residential developers have taken steps to preserve Rock Art seem to be positive. We need to follow that pattern of success perhaps with an added feature.

We have another residential development in St. George where we need to address preservation. The site known as South Airport Hill, Malibu Cleaners, or Black Ridge reportedly has development on the North end of the Rock Art area that is potentially encroaching. The Rock Art is on the slope and the development is apparently at the top of the hill. More information will be coming when we have an opportunity to look at the potential issues.

The City of St. George is still evaluating the Temple Quarry Trail where the Trail comes close to a couple of boulders with Rock Art. We are still waiting for information from St. George.

We believe that we have positive results to report on Well Site #4 south of Gunlock. BLM has advised Dixie Archaeology Society (DAS) that they will install barriers and signs to prevent traffic (vehicular) and hopefully suppress foot traffic on the horizontal panels. More on this next month. If true, a very positive accomplishment.

DAS now plans the first road cleanup project in April of 2008. We were given a 2-mile section of St. George roadway to clean up 3 times a year. We accepted this project to get name recognition and to do something good for the community. St. George, in its own way, changed the name on the sign to St. George Archaeology Society from Dixie Archaeology Society - that must be the political correct way at the moment. Not exactly the name recognition we sought, but….

In November 2007, Dixie Weekly News published an article that gave very specific directions to Cave Valley, a well known and recognized sacred site between Virgin and Kolob Reservoir. In early March, CPRA hand delivered two letters to Dixie Weekly News protesting the precise public disclosure, one signed by 20+ members of CPRA and another signed by 20+ members of DAS. The editor in the St. George office understood our concern and said our letters would be forwarded to Salt Lake City. We intend to go one step further and contact the Archaeologist at Zion to see if they wouldn’t issue advisement to the magazine. Dixie Weekly News previously ran two very favorable articles on our preservation efforts and we hope to work with them again on publicity.

In December 2007, Today in Dixie published an article giving specific directions to Shaman’s Gallery, a lesser known site between Colorado City and the Grand Canyon. In early March, CPRA hand delivered two letters to Today in Dixie protesting the disclosure of location, one signed by 20+ members of CPRA and another signed by 20+ members of DAS. The Acting Editor took issue with our comments, stated that she knows her readers and they need to be informed of sites like these to visit and enjoy, and indicated that she will continue to inform them completely. She clearly stated that her readership wouldn’t damage such a site. Comments as to her “complete” knowledge of her readership (no author knows all her readers and all the reader’s acquaintances and she rejected the suggested approach that less specific directions might be appropriate) were met with continued discussion. I believe that the site is located on BLM property and intend to pursue additional comments with BLM.

A site along the Virgin River close to Washington has received a lot of attention recently since the sole building (pioneer construction) has received damage and there is a reward for identifying the damagers. There is significant Rock Art close to this site. We have discussed with the “informal caretaker” of the site that their group might help us install signs to advise that the Rock Art needed to be protected. I will go first to the Zion National Park Archaeologist who has previously offered signage but must determine if the signs are purely for BLM property. Does anybody have any other ideas on how to obtain signs?

We have a presentation scheduled on March 28 at the Book Seller in St. George which should attract more members. We now need to advise the Rotary Club, Lion’s Club, Kiwanis Club, etc. that we have presentations and are willing to work with them. The presentation recently given is about 80% travelogue (for entertainment and awareness, and the initial approach to education) and about 20% concentrated on preservation. We want to also return to the format of a more concentrated Awareness and Education presentation format but we end up offering what our audience wants. And St. George residents want entertainment.

One of our longer term goals has been to have a city administration endorse and sponsor a Rock Art Day. We are formulating our plans to do this (in 2008) and should gain a lot of publicity to promote our efforts if we are successful.

The Coalition is researching the requirements to become a recognized non-profit organization and a 501.(c).3 organization. We feel that government approval will be needed to achieve our objectives and that a small amount of funding will be required to get the approval. We will be guided by administrative advice and assistance offered by a Board Member of URARA.

We keep moving forward, but, never as fast as we want, unfortunately. Thank you for your help and your support. It’s appreciated,

Jon Gum

Coalition to Preserve Rock Art Feb 10, 2008

COALITION TO PRESERVE ROCK ART

Jon Gum 1234 West Red Butte Washington, UT 84780

435-627-1086 preserverockart@gmail.com


The Coalition Progress Report February 10, 2008

The Coalition to Preserve Rock Art (CPRA) is now, I believe, making some progress. The first key is to get the word out of our interest. Then we need to follow through with more information supporting the Awareness concept and more material to aid in the Education area.

We then need to couple this with Actions or Implementation to see some progress toward achieving the objectives.

Specifically:

We continue to support URARA and other organizations interested in Preservation by responding to the BLM Resource Management Plans in Utah. So far we have responded on Moab, Kanab, Richfield, Monticello, Price, and Vernal. We should all give a lot of credit to URARA for their detailed analysis and thoughtful responses to the BLM. That effort is headed by Troy Scotter. If the BLM reads and listens, URARA and their associated organizations should have an impact.

BLM has announced the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the West Tavaputs Plateau Natural Gas Full Field Development Plan. This could mean the drilling of up to 807 new natural gas wells in the Nine-Mile Canyon area. The Coalition will respond to the EIS (due May 1, 2008) and will probably attend at least one Public Information Open House in the Price area if the BLM holds them as indicated. We urge all of our members to be active in responding to this EIS. Nine-Mile Canyon is a very important series of sites.

John Macumber arranged an on-site meeting with the St. George Park Planning Manager at Telegraph Hill, a site that we have watched for over a year now. We have really struggled to come up with a plan to Protect the Rock Art from residential development. There should be several future discussions and we hope that the City will take an active position with the developers on a solution such as signage and designated trails on the hillside – it may not be possible to save the Rock Art on horizontal surfaces at the top but the city will be checking that out. John has put us in touch with the right people, now we have to work the issues as the City allows us to. We were fortunate to have Pam and Quent Baker from Moab join us at the meeting and they offered some valuable ideas.

The City of St. George is also evaluating the Temple Quarry Trail where the Trail comes close to a couple of boulders with Rock Art. This area is presently BLM property, but the City will probably ask for the Coalition’s help in generating an acceptable RMP for the area and perhaps the City will have a very influential role in how the area is managed. We have indicated that we are willing to help out.

Dixie Archaeology Society (DAS) is staying in touch with the BLM on Gunlock Wellsite #4. It’s highly probable that the BLM will not take any action (my opinion), but will they allow DAS and CPRA to do something to prevent ATV and foot traffic on the site? Only time will tell.

DAS now plans the first road cleanup project in March of 2008. We were given a 2-mile section of St. George roadway to clean up 3 times a year. We accepted this project to get name recognition and to do something good for the community. St. George, in its own way, took it upon themselves to change the name on the sign to St. George Archaeology Society from Dixie Archaeology Society - that must be the political push at the moment. Not exactly the name recognition we sought, but….

There is probably more to report (for instance we have offered to help URARA distribute Rock Art Etiquette Brochures if they initiate that project), but let’s save those topics for next month or so.

The Coalition is researching what is needed to become a recognized non-profit organization and then a 501(c)3 organization. We feel that will be needed to achieve our objectives. Membership is progressing. We will be making a presentation on March 11 that will introduce us to many new potential members and will probably be making short comments in front of supportive groups soon that should also add to membership.

So we are moving ahead. Never as fast as we want, but I think progress is upon us and actual accomplishments are just around the corner.

Jon Gum

Membership of the Coalition

The membership of the Coalition is growing rapidly.

Last night we gave one of Al Scholl's books to one of the interested parties at the December Social of the Dixie Archaeology Society.

During the next two weeks the membership should show continued growth, and we should begin to reach critical mass.

Contact us at exploringrockart@gmail.com.

Preservation Efforts

There are many preservation efforts underway and we will catch you up on them soon.

Many are reported on www.exploringrockart.com.

Yesterday the Coalition responded to the BLM regarding the Resource Management Plan in the Moab area.

We supported URARA in their exhaustive analysis.

Contact us at exploringrockart@gmail.com.