Pictographs at Sego Canyon: Whispered Stories from the Old Ones

The full panorama of the Sego Canyon pictograph panel done in the Barrier Canyon Style. Photo @ Stewart M. Green

The Sego Canyon pictograph panel, five miles from I-70 and Thompson Springs in east-central utah, depicts the strange visions of ancient aboriginal shamans--floating ghostlike apparitions with hollow eyes, legless and armless bodies, and horned heads. Twisting snakes erupt from stout shoulders. Dreamscapes painted on a pale east-facing wall by the old ones between 2,000 and 4,000 years ago. It's a silent haunted place, the refuge of owls, lizards, wind, and ghosts....a sacred place of whispered stories.

The mysterious pictographs and petroglyphs created by the original Americans in the southwestern United States, as well as rock art around the world, will be featured in my forthcoming book Rock Art: The Meanings and Myths Behind Ancient Ruins in the Southwest and Beyond. The expected publication date of the book, published by Falcon Guides, is September, 2018. It's currently available for preorder on Amazon.

In his book Desert Solitaire, desert rat Edward Abbey called the figures in nearby Horseshoe Canyon “apparitions out of bad dreams." Photo @ Stewart M. Green