Castle Valley’s Archeological Society protects the past

As a child, Pam Miller first found her love of archeology inside National Geographic magazines depicting Egyptian temples and towering pyramids.  

“When I got bored, I just looked at National Geographics, and it opened the world to me,” Miller said. “I read about them moving Ramses II temple from next to the Nile to up above so it wouldn’t be flooded by Aswan Dam. I read that whole process and became fascinated with Egypt and wanted to become an archaeologist.”  

After a field trip into southeastern Utah’s sprawling canyonlands, Miller decided to specialize in Utah archeology as a professor and join the.   

Castle Valley’s Archaeological Society is one of six chapters comprising Utah’s Statewide Archaeological Society. Members of USAS have been uncovering and safeguarding Utah’s abundant archeological heritage for 72 years, a mission that its members still closely abide by today. 

CVAS works primarily out of Utah State University Eastern’s Prehistoric Museum, doing surveys and field trips in the canyons found throughout Carbon County.  

Miller, formerly an anthropology professor at USU Eastern, now serves as a professional adviser for CVAS. She has been involved with CVAS for approximately 40 years after moving to Price in 1980.  

“When I started, I was a volunteer at the prehistoric museum,” Miller said. “When I left the museum, I was the assistant director and curator of archeology. I was essentially the first full time curator of archeology and the first professional archeologist they had at the museum.”  

CVAS didn’t become an officially recognized society until the 1970s, functioning instead as an arrowhead hunting club.

“In some of the old newsletters, you could see calls to say ‘Come meet us at eight o’clock Saturday morning, and we’ll go out to the west desert,’” Miller said. “‘We’ll look for arrowheads,’ which is basically illegal now, but they were doing activities like that.”  

The Archeological Resources Protection Act of 1979 would put an end to CVAS’s arrowhead hunting, but would also provide protections for important historical sites.  

“The state society was regrouping and reorganizing,” Miller said. “Under these state archaeologists with more professional oversight, the chapter in Price really got going and was officially chartered.”  

Since receiving its official charter and help from local grants, CVAS has been conducting archeological surveys and preserving important pieces of history that otherwise wouldn’t have been found.  

One such example of preservation are Price native Lynn Fausset’s murals, painted between 1938 and 1941. The paintings depict Carbon County’s early industry.  

“Price City has been able to preserve the murals in Price City Hall,” Miller said. “They were painted by Lynn Fausset and are really famous murals. CVAS found out about these local grants and submitted an application to fund a survey of Nine Mile Canyon.”  

CVAS received the grant and began the survey in 1989, boosting the popularity of CVAS. Inexperienced volunteers and professional archaeologists alike came together to explore Nine Mile Canyon.  

“We’ve worked for 10 days a year with these volunteers recording archaeology sites and rock art,” Miller said. “The first year we had 150 separate volunteers and were running three crews to help supervise. It became a strong club effort.”  

The Nine Mile Canyon survey went on for 22 years, ending October 2014. It marks the longest running volunteer survey in the state of Utah, uncovering heaps of culture and history.  

CVAS members who were originally a part of the canyon survey are now involved with the Nine Mile Canyon Coalition, working to keep interest up and educate the public about the sites located inside.  

“CVAS members and the Nine Mile Canyon Coalition are running stewardship day in Nine Mile Canyon,” Miller said. “They set up guides and archeologists at different sites that people go to at their own rate, and they talk to the people at every site.”  

Heidi Essex is the secretary of CVAS and has been involved with the society for approximately 11 years. Essex is a former student of Miller’s. 

“I flip-flopped on what I wanted to major in and what I wanted to do,” Essex said. “I stumbled upon history and anthropology. Miller was my professor and was the one to introduce me to CVAS. She was encouraging students to go to meetings, and so I went to one.”  

Essex values the friendships she has made during her time in CVAS.  

“Everyone is willing to share their knowledge, and they’re very nice and friendly,” Essex said. “You just can’t meet a better group of people.”  

Organizations such as CVAS have come into conflict with the Bureau of Land Management over proposals to build hydrocarbon highways in Gate Canyon and Nine Mile Canyon that would allow oil tankers to access gas fields. Both Miller and Essex argue this move would destroy decades of history located in the canyons.  

“CVAS and locals felt that cultural resources needed to be protected,” Miller said. “They felt there was a way that if the gas fields were developed properly and lawfully, that the two programs could exist side by side. It became a battle between industry and avocational archaeologists.”   

Programmatic agreements were signed for Nine Mile Canyon meant to compromise the needs of both federal agencies and CVAS. However, Miller suggested the roads were still built without consideration for proper preservation. Gate Canyon now faces a similar threat.  

“There’s a lot of archaeological stuff in Gate Canyon,” Essex said. “And just like Nine Mile Canyon, we need to preserve it. It’d be such a shame to waste that. It’s history.” 

According to Essex, it is important to contact local governments about these environmental challenges.  

“You have to call people,” Essex said. “Call your representative. Email the BLM during comment periods. If you have to, call your congressman. If enough of us call and make a stink about it, we can hopefully preserve this canyon.”  

Blaine Miller, Pam Miller’s husband, is a professional adviser to CVAS and formerly a cultural resource manager for the BLM. He said the role education plays in keeping the public aware of these issues is critical.  

“It’s long been known that the biggest way for a program to protect resources is education,” Blaine said. “Getting people involved that otherwise wouldn’t be.”  

Blaine also discussed involving the public through public land days, educational programs and volunteer projects. 

“Archeologists trying to keep these sites secret has probably caused more damage to archaeological sites,” Blaine said. “By not involving lay people and showing them how important they are.” 

After struggling for the past three years over these issues and loss of participants, Essex and the leadership of CVAS have been reinvigorating the society through field trips, speakers and activity days at USU Eastern’s Prehistoric Museum.  

“We’ve got some activities planned for next summer,” Essex said. “We want to do one activity per month like a field trip. That’s where we are, just getting it all back together.”