By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
Still more bones have been found
at a home construction site, but they have been located,
along with a lot of butchered animal bones, in the piles of
dirt excavated by heavy equipment.
When the first bones were
discovered, they were found as earth was being shoveled by
hand.
"I was present when a skull was
uncovered," said Val Creps. She and her husband, Kevin, were
present with workers who were digging away the
earth.
It was determined that the site
would be turned over to the police to contact the state
archeology department.
Ronald J. Rood, Assistant State
Archeologists from the Antiquities Section of the Utah
Division of State History, has been to the site several
times and is certain that no more human remains are to be
found in the six-foot deep spot where the first skull was
found.
"We have found some artifacts,
along with the human bones," he said.
The home, being constructed just
east of 131 East 300 North, was being prepared for concrete
to be laid. However, dirt had slid down into an unwanted
area. That area was being tidied up when the first bones of
eight victims of Walker War hatred were
uncovered.
According to old journals and
histories of the time, eight male Native Americans were
killed in retaliation for the deaths of four Sanpete County
men which occurred near Salt Creek Canyon east of
Nephi.
Also killed were a woman and a
boy.
Thursday, Aug. 3, along the Old
Hallow, the historic Native American burial ground was
found.
When it was determined that the
skull was that of a human, the Creps couple determined that
they should contact authorities.
"It was the right thing to do,"
said Creps.
One of the seven bodies found by
last Friday did have a bullet hole through the femur. One of
the bodies was of a boy, approximately 13-years of age,
another was female and still another was that of a young
Native American male, approximately 17 years of
age.
The site seems to be consistent
with the stories from the time of the Native Americans who
were killed in 1853.
"We have been finding more human
bones in the piles where Jared Winn, who did the excavation
work, dumped them," said Creps.
In fact, someone may have helped
them uncover one human femur bone. The bone was found poking
straight up into the air in a pile of soil that the family
had walked past. They were certain someone had come along
during the evening, spotted the bone, and stuck it where it
would be found.
Ken Sevy and Dennis Everitt came
to the site while Creps was there. Sevy then helped put
together the bones of a foot, said Creps.
After Rood had left the site last
week, Creps started looking through the piles of soil which
had been removed to make way for the home's basement. She
found several more human bones and contacted Rood. He
returned to Nephi Friday and picked up the bones Creps had
found.
"We are working again this
morning," said Rood on Monday. "We have found a few
interesting items and a few more human bones."
The bones are placed in brown
paper bags, labeled as to where they were located, and are
then taken to the lab by Rood.
"Plastic bags make the bones
deteriorate more quickly," he said.
Rood is also able to identify the
joint bones of humans and recognize the difference between
those joints and the joints of animals. The only time it is
difficult for him to differentiate, he said, is when there
are bones of a bear involved. Those are more difficult to
tell apart from human bones.
"There are a lot of animal bones
at the site," said Rood. "Most of them appear to be from
animals who have been butchered."
There are also many shards of
dishes, the kind that Caucasian settlers used.
"I have been told that the area
was used to dump garbage for many years," said Rood. "Some
of the things we have found would be consistent with
that."
There was an animal processing
plant located approximately two blocks south of the burial
site. Some animal bones from this source may have ended up
at the site now owned by the Creps family. It may be, in
addition, that dead farm animals were taken to the site
along with community garbage.
The human bones were well out of
the boundaries of either of the old forts used for
protection by early settlers.
The first was built prior to 1852
and covered only two blocks, from 100 North to 100 south on
Main Street and to 100 West. Then in 1853, at the time of
the deaths of the ten Native Americans, another fort was
begun which also was small, covering nine blocks. The Salt
Creek Fort ran from 200 East to 100 West and from 100 North
to 200 South.
Creps said that as the excavated
earth taken from the home construction site is returned to
the foundation area of the home, she will keep looking for
human bones.
"I will keep in touch with her,"
said Rood.
Rood loaned Creps his screen so
that she could run the earth through the screen to find any
small pieces, such as finger bones or buttons, which Rood
will then take to his lab.
"I may just get my whole family
involved," she said.
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