The Valley of Kings, American style

I am, quite simply, astonished. I had no idea an archaeological discovery of this magnitude would be possible anywhere in the world, much less in the United States. I seriously considered going into anthropology/archaeology in college, so this Range Creek find gets my blood pumping. By golly, there's the remains of an entire civilization dating back 3,000 years in Utah: Rancher keeps ancient Indian settlement secret for 50 years

Hidden deep inside Utah's nearly inaccessible Book Cliffs region, 130 miles from Salt Lake City, the prehistoric villages run for 12 miles and include hundreds of rock art panels, cliffside granaries, stone houses built halfway underground, rock shelters, and the mummified remains of long-ago inhabitants.

The site was occupied for at least 3,000 years until it abandoned more than 1,000 years ago, when the Fremont people mysteriously vanished.

No looters. That is truly amazing. The mind boggles at the magnitude of this archaeological treasure trove. I think people everywhere owe rancher Waldo Wilcox a huge debt of gratitude for his efforts in protecting and preserving this chain of ancient villages. Sure, he made out okay with $2.5 million for the sale of the land, but I daresay most others in his position would've sold the artifacts off piecemeal for whatever profit they offered, and not done nearly as much as Wilcox to ensure their preservation. My big concern now is that pothunters will swarm to the site, stealing in under the cover of darkness to plunder like the poachers they are. If National Geographic doesn't have a crew there ASAP, they might as well stop publishing their magazine...

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