Silent testimony to a forgotten time
by Michael Murphy

Arizona archaeologist John Hanson clearly remembers the day he probed deep into Snake Gulch, a mystical place where ancient people painted rock walls with figures of sheep, birds, dogs and mysterious shapes.

“I was overwhelmed,” he said. “There was so much, and it’s so big, you couldn’t really believe that these kinds of things still existed. It’s truly amazing.”

Snake Gulch, located in the Kanab Creek Wilderness in northern Arizona, is one of the state’s archaeological treasures, a magical place that was once likely a major social gathering spot for a forgotten civilization.

Hand prints of yellow paint left by the inhabitants give silent testimony to a forgotten time, dating to as far back as 200 B.C.

“It’s big and bold and it’s not hidden,” Hanson said of the 3.5‑mile‑long gallery of ancient art. “There’s a sense when you walk through the gulch that whoever was painting this stuff was in essence announcing, ‘We’re here. Understand it. This is ours. Be aware!’”

Hanson, an archaeologist with the Kaibab National Forest for 20 years, is sharing his excitement about Snake Gulch with the public. He will be showing a short documentary about the site at the Oct. 11 meeting of the Desert Foothills Chapter of the Arizona Archaeological Society.

The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. in the new DFC meeting facility, the Dream Center, 28700 N. Pima in Scottsdale. The free event is open to the public.

Snake Gulch contains one of the finest collections of prehistoric rock paintings on the Colorado Plateau. The styles are consistent with the Anasazi and Fremont traditions.

The desolate 10‑mile canyon is accessible by foot, and has been documented during several trips led by Hanson and other Forest Service archaeologists.

It offers a stunning collection of pictographs, and a startling glimpse of a long‑forgotten part of Arizona’s history.

Yet the gulch offers more questions than answers about these ancient artists.

Why was it put there? What are the messages in the rocks?

Hanson theorizes the gulch was a ceremonial gathering place. Not only is the rock art phenomenal, he said, the spot offers “truly amazing” acoustics.

“The ancients were aware, I’m certain, of the audio possibilities there,” he said. “And what they did and why they painted this stuff, there are probably as many reasons that you could give as there are archaeologists. Everybody’s got a story and all of them are different.”

What everybody agrees on, though, is that Snake Gulch is a magical and powerful place.

A volunteer on one of the archaeological surveys recalled feeling a connection with the past.

“While working day after day, seated before a rock panel covered with perhaps large anthropomorphic figures, groups of mountain sheep, birds, even dogs, and a variety of abstract elements, one begins to feel like a participant in the life that created these images. They come alive,” wrote Robert Kasal. “You feel as if an ancient artist might be standing before you, watching you draw on paper what he or she had painted long ago on stone.”

Hanson said even though the gulch is accessible to the public, he’s not overly worried about vandalism.

“I honestly think you vandalize anything down there at your own risk,” he said. “I don’t mess with stuff like that.”