Preserving Zion’s Regional History Forever

Our public lands surrounding Zion National Park are rich with cultural artifacts that share the history and culture of the people who have called this region home. To ensure those artifacts are protected and preserved, proper curation in specialized facilities that have climate control, pest-management, and fire protection is important. Unfortunately, the Bureau of Land Management offices in St. Geroge do not have proper curation facilities to adequately preserve over 2,000 artifacts collected from the Zion National Park, Pipe Spring National Monument and from our neighboring National Park unit: Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument.  

These items include complete baskets, pottery, wooden sticks, and other unique objects like pottery sherds embedded in lava. Some objects are incredibly unique and rare in terms of all Southwestern Archaeology collections. Improperly storing these priceless pieces of history will result in the degradation of these items over time and the permanent loss of these artifacts which tell the human story of Zion National Park and its sister parks.  

Our project, Preserving Zion’s Regional History Forever, seeks funding to cover the one-time curation fees of the SUU Archaeology Repository where these archaeological resources can be stored in adequate curation facilities in perpetuity. Once items are in proper curation, they will be freely available for researchers and the public to see and study. Selected items may also be displayed at the university and may be loaned for museums and exhibit spaces within the region such as the Zion Human History Museum, the East Side Discovery Center and Pipe Spring National Monument’s Visitor Center. 

Preserving Zion’s Regional History Forever elevates Zion National Park and its sister parks as leaders and models in exceptional park management by recognizing that the preservation of the Zion region human story requires work beyond the physical boundaries of these parks. The same people who lived in and moved through Zion National Park and Pipe Spring National Monument occupied the areas just outside the park as well. Supporting regional partners, such as the BLM and Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument, in the proper curation of archaeological material in areas surrounding Zion National Park and its sister parks only serves to preserve and protect the history of Zion.