The Rochester Panel

Archaic, Barrier Canyon Style, Fremont, Dinwoody elements
1000 B.C. to 1250 A.D. Emery County

The rock art at the Rochester and Muddy Creek confluence altered my life.  I visited this petroglyph many times, sitting on the large flat boulder directly in front of the large carved rainbow.  A female figure is carved around the natural hole in the rock suggesting female (vulva) symbolism and a male figure with an exaggerated phallus is carved directly underneath her. The fertility theme of the panel may be mirrored in the confluence of the two creeks.  An elder Navaho medicine man told me that the confluence of certain rivers was considered a sexual union.  He told me about the San Juan River, a male force, and the Colorado River, a female force.  At the confluence of these rivers, where the San Juan enters the Colorado River, is a site of great energy and creativity. 

Here at the Rochester site I became aware of a different artistic consciousness.  The creators of the rock art were working with an enormous palette, which included surface features of the rock, the surrounding visual landscape and the changing light.  I wanted to photograph the expanded vision of the ancient people, the total rock art context.  I asked a photographer with a 360-degree medium format camera to photograph the site with me.  When I saw the pictures, I knew that my life had changed.  I wanted to photograph rock art sites with a camera that enabled me to see the whole site.

Emery county tourist brochures promote the Rochester Panel as a visitor destination.   The result has been more graffiti at the site.  A few years ago, someone attempted to remove a portion of the petroglyph with a chisel. Hopefully, the state’s new site stewardship plan of drawing on volunteers to monitor rock art sites will further protect sites like The Rochester Panel.