Ancient Bones

We were hiking in the vicinity of Vernal, Utah, a few years ago, exploring the canyon walls for petroglyphs, when we came across some scattered bones.

We gathered the skeletal remains to examine them.  Steve often stops to glance at cow or elk bones for a quick I.D., but this time, the shape of the hip and ankle sockets held his interest.  The bones appeared to be human.

Though the bones looked quite old, we called the police department to report them, just in case.  A reporter, two policemen, and an archeologist all showed up and we led them to the scene.  Everyone eventually concurred that they were Fremont Indian remains that must have washed down from a cliff crevice. (This culture not uncommonly buried their dead in crevices.)
The Ute tribe was notified, and they said they would gather the remains and hold a ceremony.  

The event captured the interest of the reporter, and both local newspapers ran stories about it.  (News was probably slow that week.  In fact, news is pretty much always slow in the Uintah Basin...)

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