Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado/Utah (page 2 of 3)

Human Occupation

The ecological diversity of Dinosaur National Monument provided a rich resource base for many generations of prehistoric Indians: rivers full of fish, fertile land in the warm canyon bottoms, firewood from the mesa tops and an array of game and edible wild plants throughout the region. The archaeological record, supported by hundreds of sites within the monument, indicates prehistoric human occupation of the area since 6000 B.C. One site, Deluge Shelter, was continuously occupied for 8000-9000 years by several different cultures. Dinosaur NM is archaeologically exceptional in that prehistoric peoples from the distinct Desert, Intermontane and High Plains cultures occupied the region simultaneously for thousands of years. 

Fremont pictographs, Green River, Dinosaur NM. Photo by Alex or Dorothy Brownlee, 1954, courtesy of Cline Library Special Collections, NAU

By 800 A.D., the Fremont people were the sole culture remaining in the area. Archaeological evidence in the form of faunal and wild plant remains indicate that the Fremont were less dependent on agriculture than their contemporary neighbors, such as the Anasazi. 

Early Fremont people lived in simple cliff dwellings in the natural shelters of the canyon walls. Later Fremont people built small villages consisting of a few pithouses and storerooms and granaries on the fertile river bottoms. Kivas are entirely absent from Fremont sites.

Most of the rock art in Dinosaur NM was created by the Fremont. The pictographs and petroglyphs of this culture are abundant in the monument and are stylistically unique, consisting largely of geometric human and animal forms.  The Fremont left the area and the archaeological record between 1150 and 1300 A.D.

Ute and Shoshone Indians were living in the area when Spaniards first traveled through in the late 18th century. As the 19th century brought settlement by Europeans, Native Americans gradually lost their hold on these lands and moved or were moved to less desirable locales.

Trappers, explorers, gold seekers, cattlemen and outlaws found the area we now call Dinosaur NM to be an excellent location for their respective pursuits, contributing to the colorful pioneer history of the monument. Butch Cassidy once followed the "Outlaw Trail" into the meandering canyons and extensive wilderness of the monument. Many historic ranches and homesteads from the settlement era  are still intact within Dinosaur NM. Several families lived and ranched in and around the monument for generations and their descendants continue the tradition in the region today.

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Page 3 - Land Use Issues
References