After 14 Years, Shoshone Tribe Gets Its Petroglyph Rock Back

A large rock bearing petroglyphs created more than 1,000 years ago by the ancestors of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation is finally back home in the mountains of northern Utah. The recovery effort, which began in 2011, culminated earlier this month when the sacred rock was airlifted to its original location after being freed from a concrete slab in front of a church meetinghouse in the community of Tremonton, about 80 miles north of Salt Lake City, per the AP. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said in a statement that historians and conservators working on its behalf partnered with the tribe and the state to carefully remove and clean the 2,500-pound rock. The process involved saws, chisels, and, eventually, soap and water to remove years of lichen growth from the petroglyphs.

People give different versions of how the rock found its way to the church meetinghouse some 80 years ago. Stories involve a group of people muscling the hefty rock into a pickup and hauling it to town. It's a mystery why it was brought to the church, says Ryan Saltzgiver, a historical curator for the church. For decades, it sat outside the building, first near the flagpole and then on the north side. Grainy black-and-white photos shared by the church showed the rock on display. David Bolingbroke, a historian for the church, said the rock was likely placed at the chapel not out of malice, but out of a lack of proper understanding.

In 2011, amateur archaeologists used a 1937 rock-art survey to identify and track down the rock's origin. "We've been working since about that time on getting everything to line up so we could move the stone," Saltzgiver says. The Utah State Historic Preservation Office helped bring partners together, and the church worked with the tribe to finalize a preservation and return plan. Once the rock was removed from its concrete base, it was taken to Provo, where conservators used bamboo and plastic tools to carefully remove the lichen.

After trucking the rock to a spot near the Utah-Idaho line, a helicopter was used to move it into place. Officials didn't disclose the exact location to ensure safekeeping. For Brad Parry, the tribe's vice chair, it was emotional seeing the rock returned. He said it's a spiritual place where Shoshone ancestors would gather to camp and hunt, and that the rock's return was like putting a puzzle piece in place. "Our history is so fractured with a lot of things that happened to us," he said in a statement. "To have these positive things now that are coming out—it's rebuilding our history."