Day Five

This was originally planned as a travel day, but our friend Shauna suggested we take a scenic route and stop at the USU Primitive Museum in Price Utah. It would have been a short driving day otherwise, so we said what the heck. Let's give it a try.

The drive was scenic, but not like the scenery you find in Capitol Reef and around down there. We arrived in Price just before noon and availed ourselves of a lovely repast at McDonalds. We see the insides of many McDonalds restaurants during our trips.

The museum itself was small but interesting. It was half paleontology, you know dinosaurs and stuff. The other half was about the Fremont people who were the indigenous people here from 450-1300 AD. They, like all the other Indians of the southwest just vaporized into thin air about 1300. Mysterious. Anyway there was a nice display of artifacts that included day to day stuff like baskets, pots, snares and the like. I really like seeing that stuff because I always think that somebody, hundreds of years ago, made this stuff and used this stuff.

One thing that I really wonder about is eyesight. Some of the things, especially baskets, are made of very tiny bits of material that are woven in a very tiny tight weave. You need good eyesight (and good light) to be able to do that. Once your eyesight is failing for these minute operations, I guess you have to do something else. Can't imagine somebody not doing something in what appears to be a subsistence lifestyle.

Today's photo is not a very good one. For that I apologize. It has a very interesting subject. It is a complete mammoth skeleton that is about 13,000 years old. What makes it interesting is that it is not fossilized and the experts were able to get DNA samples off it. I had never thought about that, but I can see the reasoning. Pretty cool. Easily amused. Life is good.