Great Hunt Panel

To the northeast of Wellington Utah (near Price) is Nine Mile Canyon which is a fantastic repository of ancient rock art that dates back centuries and represents several native American groups that occupied or passed through this region.

Various sites have both pictographs (images or symbols painted onto rock surfaces, created using natural pigments from sources like mineral ochre, charcoal, and plants) and petroglyphs (images created by removing the outer layer of a rock surface through carving or pecking). The best preserved petroglyph panel is the Great Hunt Panel located 45 miles up Nine Mile Canyon, at the mouth of Cottonwood Canyon. First explored and excavated by Albert Reagan in 1931, the panel represents one of the finest and most well preserved to be found anywhere in the southwest representing Fremont Period rock art dating between 950 – 1200 AD. This panel was part of a featured article in a 1980 edition of National Geographic about the McConkie Ranch near Vernal, which holds many other similar panels.

The Great Hunt Panel is interpreted to represent a communal hunt of a group of bighorn sheep, probably gathered in the fall during rut. There are 30 sheep represented and 8 “anthropomorphs” (humans). The area has been protected by relocating and paving the road, building a parking area and short walking trail and installing fencing to reduce human contact. The panel is nationally significant and has been used in publications worldwide. 

Photo taken 03/24 Carrie Cooney