Laserfiche WebLink
' 3 <br />IiISTORY <br />The earliest aboriginal inhabitants of the arid Sasin-Plateau <br />Country were small bands of desert dvreliers who wandered about i.n <br />search of food (Crampton 1972, .Steward 1938). They were hunters <br />and gatherers .and, by 6000 B.C., had developed a specia]ized material <br />culture based on basketry, furcloth, netting, sandals, firedrills, <br />milling. stones, digging and throwing sticks, wooden clubs and stone <br />projectile points (Crampton 1971). These people belong to what <br />archaeologists tail the "Desert Culture" or "Desert Archaic" that <br />inhabited most of the aril West. They disappeared from the canyon <br />country long before the coming of Christianity and it was centuries <br />before humans inhabited the area again (Crampton 1972). <br />The Anasazi Culture (part of the Pueblo Culture) was the next <br />group. to appear (circa 700 A.D.) in the area and, although somewhat more <br />sophisticated, were probably descended from the Desert Archaic peoples. <br />They were less dependent upon hunting and gathering and raised crops <br />possibly with the aid of irrigation (Crampton 1972). The Anasazi <br />Culture a~as wel] established by 900 A.D. Remains from this culture <br />have been excavated at the confluence of Beaver Dam Wash and the <br />Virgin River.(Giancy and Van Denburgh i969). The well knoam Pueblo <br />Grande de f~evada (=the Lost City) in the ]ower Virgin River valley near <br />the confluence of the hloapa River dates from these peoples (Crampton <br />1972). <br />