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Our Daily Sykes #9 – Utah: Buckhorn Draw Pictograph Panel

We found the location of Sykes first pictograph included below  with a little browsing on Google Earth.  At some point in our highly speculative “Sykes Kodachrome Period” – ca. 1945-53 – Horace Sykes visited this central Utah panel, an example of what the experts call a Barrier Canyon Style of rock art.  The name for this site is Buckhorn Draw.  It is a tributary to the San Rafael River if you wish to go exploring for it.  It will not take long.  We have called the top panel “How the West Was Won” – an obvious, we hope, reference to the graffiti that marks the easier to reach lower parts of the rock art.  Take some time to read the contributions.  Some are dated and proudly note the homes of the scribblers.   I found on line another rendering of this Sykes panel, which is included below it.  There much of the defacing has been retouched in a 1996 effort at restoration – but not all of it.  The remaining pattern may be in same group.  Can’t say for I’ve not found it as of yet.  With its rock face it is certainly a joy forever, and perhaps it is also harder to reach.   [Click twice – sometimes – to Enlarge]

"How the West Was Won" - our name for this rock art in Utah's Buckhorn Draw.
Another - and later - view of it found on the web. This was snapped sometime after the 1996 restoration that removed much of the graffiti. You may wish to read John Ullman's comments on this practice of retouching history.
Another Sykes and perhaps from the same Buckhorn Draw panorama. (See Brian's attached comment for the correct location of the art directly above. It is near MOAB, Utah. Brian also includes two other recording of it that show how much it has been vandalized since Horace Sykes took his shot of it ca. 1950.)
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