Newspaper Rock, Indian Creek Canyon, San Juan County, Utah

Newspaper Rock is perhaps the most highly-visited rock art site in Utah and certainly one of the most elaborate. Petroglyphs, by definition, are pecked into the rock usually through a darkly patinated surface to reveal the lighter rock below. As seen in this black & white photograph, literally hundreds of figures have been created here during both prehistoric and historic times but are primarily Anasazi of the Abajo-La Sal style. The most recent Ute-style contributions include the horse and rider. The Navajo name for this site is Tse Hane, meaning “rock that tells a story”. Located along a pre-historic travel corridor and perennial stream which flows off the Abajo Mountains to the south, thousands of people must have passed thist have passed this way over the ages. Many of these people obviously paused to add their contribution to this slab of Wingate sandstone perhaps to tell the story of their clan or just to doodle. We can only speculate as to their intentions. This black & white horizontal photograph was captured with a 6×7 format camera.