Monday, January 5, 2015

Unearthed: The Beads of Fremont State Park and Museum

You may recall that back in November I went out to Utah to visit my parents.  I wrote a post about a few of my favorite things out there and how they inspire my work.  Well, I had another wonderful trip and got to visit Zion,  Snow Canyon State Park,  Arches National Park and my favorite was actually this little side stop on the way home... Fremont Indian State Park and Museum.
Fremont State Park is located off of I-70 near Sevier, Utah.  This little gem of a site contains pictographs, petroglyphs and a host of other artifacts left behind by the Paiute Native Americans.   This site was used as a place for seasonal travel between two hunting areas.  
In addition to all the fabulous petroglyphs and pictographs, there is also a small museum.  I only got to spend a few minutes inside but I managed to snap a few photos while in there...

Of course I photographed the most important things....beads!  
I'm ashamed to say I passed right by all the artifacts recovered from the site just so I could quickly gaze upon the beads, pendants and buttons that have been recovered.
I love the simplistic look of the beads even though they took time and skill to create.  Makes me want to return to some more simplistic designs.
I wonder how much more is still out on the site just waiting to be discovered.
In the early 1800's, the site was used as a wagonroad.  In 1877, the Lott family settled in the Canyon. These sewing bits were discovered at was once the site of their homestead.  

I wish I could have spent a few more hours at the park but we had been on the road for hours returning from Arches.  I suppose it gives me an excuse to visit again in the future.
Oh, remember that rock shop I wrote about in the prior post?  I went there again on my second day of the trip.  Since it was the end of the season, the owner didn't have as much stock BUT I still managed to find some goodies.
There's an assortment of dendrites, wonderstone, picasso stone, unakite, turquoise and a couple of trilobites.  Most of these are gifts that I still need to send out (oops!).  

Anyway, if you ever get a chance to visit Southern Utah I highly recommend Fremont Park and Museum AND a trip to Springdale Utah for the rock shops and Zion National Park!

Happy Beading!

6 comments :

  1. We love to travel and have been to the arches park and a few others in that area. My dad has never been there and at age 84 his only wish is to see the arches park. I'm so happy that we will be going there in June. My son graduates from college in Denver and after that we will be headed to the park.
    Thanks for sharing about Fremont State Park as my dad loves all things about the history of the American Indians.

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  2. Making me want to go more and more every day!

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  3. Great post.

    When I was a quilter, I'd write the location I bought the fabric in the selvage with indelible ink.

    Now I use the same markers to write on the tiny ziplocs where I keep my bead treasures, so I will always know what adventure I was on when I bought them.

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  4. I'm so envious of your trip - I love the Southwest. I really enjoyed looking at your photos. The beads are fabulous and a reminder of how very ancient our art (bead making) is.

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  5. Thanks for sharing your trip and all of the beads. I visited Zion a few years ago and I was blown away by how beautiful it is. Utah certainly has some great spots to visit. I hope to get back their again.

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  6. Thanx for the fun post Diane. My son used to live in that area but sadly I did not get to visit him then. He does have lots of great pics though.

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