PRESS RELEASE:

It was called one of the most significant finds in North America in the past 50 years. Nestled in the heart of Central Utah in Range Creek Canyon were the remains of a lost civilization that once thrived in the American Southwest.

For 500 years, the Fremont Indians lived in parts of the Great Basin and Colorado Plateau as hunters, gatherers and farmers. They left detailed art and symbols on the stone faces of canyons they inhabited and stored their grain high on cliff walls in well-built granaries that still survive. Then, 800 years ago, the Fremont seemingly disappeared.

Today, University of Utah archeologists are surveying an entire canyon of some 2,000 untouched Fremont Indian sites. But this KUED documentary, airing Thursday, March 27 at 8 p.m., captures a range of issues and challenges that threaten efforts to understand the past.

Secrets of the Lost Canyon is made possible by the R. Harold Burton Foundation, Dr. Ezekiel R. & Edna Wattis Dumke Foundation, Lawrence T. Dee - Janet T. Dee Foundation, C. Comstock Clayton Foundation, REI and a outreach grant from the Utah Humanities Council.