Journey through the human history of Arches National Park, from the earliest hunter-gatherers to the people who first advocated for its preservation.
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Ten Thousand Years of Desert Lives
This series, Ancient Footprints: Echoes of Human History, traces the long human story woven through the red rock landscape of Arches National Park.
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1
Stone Tools from Ancient Quarries
The earliest people to walk this landscape were tracking something specific — not just game, but stone.
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2
Desert Farmers Who Painted on Stone
Two thousand years ago, a quiet revolution unfolded in this desert. People who had roamed these lands for generations began putting down roots — literally.
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Ute Horseback Riders Carved in Stone
Near Wolfe Ranch, figures on horseback are chipped into the rock — petroglyphs left by Ute people who arrived in this region roughly seven hundred years ago.
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4
Spanish Traders at the Desert's Edge
Juan Maria de Rivera led a small party into this region in 1765, making him one of the first documented Europeans to reach the canyon country around present-day Moab.
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5
A Civil War Veteran's Desert Ranch
John Wesley Wolfe walked with a limp from a Civil War wound when he arrived in 1898 to establish a cattle ranch along Salt Creek, becoming the first permanent white…
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How Arches Earned Its Protected Status
A Hungarian-born prospector named Alexander Ringhoffer is largely responsible for the protection of this landscape.
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