Church repatriates sacred rock covered with petroglyphs after 14-year effort

TREMONTON, Utah (AP) — A large rock bearing petroglyphs created more than 1,000 years ago by the ancestors of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation is finally back home in the mountains of northern Utah.

The repatriation effort, which began in 2011, culminated earlier this month when the sacred rock was airlifted to its original location after being freed from a concrete slab in front of a church meetinghouse in the community of Tremonton, about 80 miles (129 kilometers) north of Salt Lake City.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said in a statement Wednesday that historians and conservators working on its behalf partnered with the tribe and the state to carefully remove and clean the 2,500-pound (1,134-kilogram) rock. The process involved saws, chisels and eventually soap and water to remove years of lichen growth from the petroglyphs.

For Brad Parry, the tribe’s vice chair, it was emotional seeing the rock returned to the rugged hillside to rejoin other petroglyph-covered rocks. He said it’s a spiritual place where Shoshone ancestors would gather to camp and hunt.

Parry said the repatriation was like putting a puzzle piece in place.

“Our history is so fractured with a lot of things that happened to us,” he said in a statement. “To have these positive things now that are coming out — it’s rebuilding our history. And I can’t overstate that.”

People give different versions of how the rock found its way to the church meetinghouse some 80 years ago. Stories involve a group of people muscling the hefty rock into a pickup and hauling it to town.

It’s a mystery why it was brought to the church, said Ryan Saltzgiver, history sites curator for the Church History Department. For decades, it sat outside the building, first near the flagpole and then on the north side. Grainy black and white photos shared by the church showed the rock on display.

David Bolingbroke, research and outreach historian for the Church History Department, said the rock was likely placed at the chapel not out of malice, but out of a lack of proper understanding.

In 2011, amateur archaeologists used a 1937 rock-art survey to identify and track down the rock’s origin.

“We’ve been working since about that time on getting everything to line up so we could move the stone,” Saltzgiver said.

The Utah State Historic Preservation Office helped bring partners together, and the church worked with the tribe to finalize a preservation and repatriation plan. Saltzgiver said the church has a moral and ethical obligation to care for things that are in its possession as well as a responsibility to return sacred items to their rightful owners.

Once the rock was removed from its concrete base, it was taken to Provo where conservators with the Midwest Art Conservation Center used bamboo and plastic tools to remove the lichen without altering the original patina.

After trucking the rock to a spot near the Utah-Idaho line, a helicopter was used to move it into place. Officials did not disclose the exact location to ensure its safekeeping.

To mark the return, tribal spiritual leader Rios Pacheco offered a blessing in Shoshoni, the language spoken by the tribe.

“This rock was meant to be here,” Parry said. “It’s like this rock knows it’s home.”