Saturday, May 24, 2008

Parowan Gap

I'm going to do some catching up here. During Spring semester, I went on an adventure up to Parowan to see my 3rd Great Grandfather, Priddy Meeks' cabin. I believe it's the oldest standing home in Parowan, as it was the first home built outside of the fort. Parowan was the first community settled in southern Utah. The church sent people down to establish an Iron industry. This community basically served as a springboard for the settlement of the rest of southern Utah. Here are some pictures of the cabin. From here Priddy and his family moved to Harrisburg near present-day Hurricane, and then on to Orderville.





After the cabin, I went west to the Parowan Gap, which was an important route for early explorers and settlers, and also the Paiute, Ute, and Fremont cultures for over a thousand years. It was held sacred by the Indians of the area. The Ute Chief Walker said that the gap was "God's own house". Anyway, for centuries, cultures traveled through the gap, and wrote on the walls. Some of the petroglyphs date back over a thousand years.



The petroglyph that looks like a V-shaped zipper below, is actually a solar calendar. The Fremont culture that lived in this area was very advanced.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

That is way cool! I find myself fascinated with petroglyph's lately. It's really interesting to me. What blows my mind is that there are a few certain symbols that are pretty much identically carved by different groups of people all over that world. I wish I could be out there with you this sumer checking out all the cool sites.

Caleb said...

"very advanced" is a relative term :) really cool pictures.

Daniel T said...

fine, fine. "relatively speaking"

Stevierob01 said...

We are RELATED. Priddy Meeks is also my G.G.G. Grandfather married to my G.G.G. Grandmother Mary Jane McCleave. I have lots of old family photos if you would like me to send them to you let me know Dionne Roberts -stevie.roberts@gmail.com