On an unusually warm and sunny day this December, a helicopter airlifted a 2,500-pound rock adorned with petroglyphs back to its original location near the Utah-Idaho border.
As the helicopter hovered, workers maneuvered the sacred artifact into place among other boulders bearing similar petroglyphs.
The petroglyphs were created by the Fremont people, ancestors of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation 1,200 years ago.
According to a news release on ChurchofJesusChrist.org, some 80 years ago, the petroglyph rock was removed by either a group of men or Boy Scouts and hauled to a meetinghouse of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Tremonton, Utah, where it remained outside the building for decades — until now.
The rock’s return marks the culmination of a multiyear collaboration involving the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation, the State of Utah, and historians and conservators representing The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
For Brad Parry, vice chair of the Northwestern Band of Shoshone Nation, seeing the rock return to a site he described as “a spiritual place” where families — including his own ancestors — gathered and camped, was an emotional experience.
“This rock was meant to be here,” Parry said. “It’s like this rock knows it’s home.”
Preservation and repatriation
Why the rock was removed from its original location and brought to the Church is “a mystery,” said Ryan Saltzgiver, a historic sites curator for the Church History Department.
The stone was likely placed at the chapel “not out of malice, but out of a lack of proper understanding,” said David Bolingbroke, research and outreach historian for the Church History Department.
In 2011, amateur archaeologists used a 1937 rock-art survey to discover the rock at the Tremonton meetinghouse and tracked down its origin.
“We’ve been working since about that time on getting everything to line up so we could move the stone,” Saltzgiver said.
The Church worked with the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation to finalize a plan of preservation and repatriation. Although the Church had “no legal obligation” to return the artifact, Saltzgiver said, “we do have a moral and ethical obligation to care for items like this that are in our possession — especially when it involves returning very sacred objects to their rightful owners.”
For the tribe, the partnership was uplifting.
“Putting it back for us is putting a puzzle piece back into place,” Parry said. “Our history is so fractured with a lot of things that happened to us. To have these positive things now that are coming out — it’s rebuilding our history. And I can’t overstate that.”
The repatriation process spanned several years, during which Chris Merritt from the Utah State Historic Preservation Office played an instrumental role in uniting all the partners.
Cleaning the artifact
The artifact’s journey home started when specialized art handlers carefully removed it from the concrete.
The rock was transported to Provo, Utah, where objects conservators selected by Church historians carefully cleaned and removed years of lichen growth.
The cleaning process involved using soap and water, bamboo and plastic tools, nontoxic biocide and steam, according to Megan Randall, an objects conservator with the Midwest Art Conservation Center.
“Even if it’s not the cleanest, in a couple [of] months or a year, it will continue to sort of clean itself with the application of the biocide,” Randall said. “There are not that many people out there who do this, which makes our work very interesting and varied. [The stone] has designs that are spiritually connected to the tribe, and we want to make those visible and appreciable by the people who find value in this, which is also us.”
Home again
Once cleaned and preserved, the sacred artifact was transported back to its original location.
The final placement of the rock was described as a seminal and sacred moment, one that evoked powerful emotions among those involved.
It was a team effort and an emotional project, said Megan Emery, chief conservator at the Midwest Art Conservation Center.
“Seeing how well all the team members work together and seeing how successful it’s been — it’s a very satisfying project to be part of, and I am honored and very grateful," Emery said.
Bolingbroke said witnessing the rock’s preservation and return was a “wonderful thing.”
To commemorate the meaningful occasion, Rios Pacheco, a tribal spiritual leader, offered a blessing that deeply moved those gathered.
“He prayed that everybody will be blessed [who] helped,” Parry said. “Hearing him say that in Shoshone … [was] just wonderful.”
Added Bolingbroke: “I felt a strong impression that the eyes of our ancestors were upon us in that moment — both Latter-day Saint and Shoshone. They were pleased with our efforts to bring this stone back [and] put it in its rightful place. It’s so important because it has a connection that the Shoshone have with this stone.”
