Sat, May 31, 2008 (2:06 a.m.)

In the heart of Utah’s red rock country lies a canyon with walls that are covered with more than 10,000 carvings and drawings dating back as far as 700 A.D.

The rock art panels of Nine Mile Canyon, about 95 miles south of Salt Lake City, include images of spear-wielding hunters and warriors and bighorn sheep, elk, insects, birds and other wildlife.

The Bureau of Land Management has dubbed them “the greatest concentration of rock art sites” in the United States. Those who have seen the panels agree: They are magnificent.

But a proposal to increase natural gas drilling in the canyon has historic preservationists and natural gas developers in disagreement over whether such work will damage the ancient art.

Bill Barrett Corp. of Denver has purchased more than 47,000 acres of oil and gas leases in and around the canyon, the Associated Press reports. The BLM has proposed allowing Barrett to add 700 to 800 natural gas wells to the estimated 100 already in existence.

Steve Tanner of the Nine Mile Canyon Coalition told the AP that industrial traffic should be diverted farther away from the art panels because the dust kicked up by trucks could cause irreparable damage.

Barrett Corp. commissioned a 2006 study that concluded dust settling on the rock art panels creates “a very serious conservation problem.” Preservationists now worry that a proposed solution to that problem — using magnesium chloride to suppress the dust — could do equal or greater damage because the chemical causes corrosion.

Kevin Jones, Utah’s state archaeologist, told the AP that officials don’t know enough about the potential for damage and “the resource is valuable enough that we ought to find out.”

We concur. These ancient images are believed to have been created by the Fremont people, who lived in present-day Utah, Colorado, Idaho and Nevada. Their meanings are not yet known, and they belong to all of us.

The BLM should require a more thorough examination of what damage could occur and craft a detailed plan to ensure preservation of these precious works of art before allowing drilling to move forward.