ARCHEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT 



PARAGONAH, UTAH 



By NEIL M. JUDD 



(With Fifteen Plates) 



INTRODUCTION 



The remains of ancient habitations now visible near Paragonah 

 in Iron County, Utah, comprise but a small remnant of the total 

 number which formerly overlooked the broad Parowan Valley, from 

 the foothills between Red and Little Creek canyons. It is recorded ^ 

 that Dr. H. C. Yarrow, of the Wheeler Survey, observed more than 

 400 mounds in this vicinity in 1872. The figure given, in itself, 

 suggests a possible exaggeration and yet many ruins were unques- 

 tionably razed during the succeeding 20 years as the cultivated fields 

 of the modern community increased in extent. Prof. Henry Mont- 

 gomery, then of the University of Utah, reports ^ approximately 

 100 mounds near Paragonah in 1893 ^"^ a like estimate is given by 

 Mr. Don Maguire.of Ogden, Utah, who conducted excavations at 

 the same time as Professor Montgomery in the interest of the 

 Chicago World's Fair. Less than half of these remained in 191 5, 

 when the writer began his investigations for the Bureau of American 

 Ethnology and the number was still further reduced during the next 

 12 months, leaving a bare half-dozen large elevations in the fields al- 

 ready under cultivation and several smaller mounds in the sage- 

 covered area adjoining. But the largest of these, whose size alone has 

 delayed their reduction, had also attracted earlier investigators and 

 each mound still bears the scars of their several undertakings. 



In addition to the above observers Dr. Edward Palmer, of the U. S. 

 National Museum, conducted linfiited excavations at the same locality 

 during one of his numerous expeditions through southwestern Utah 

 between 1869 and 1877. None of these investigators, however, with 

 the single exception of Professor Montgomery,' has published an 



*U. S. Geographical Surveys West of the looth Meridian, Capt. G. M. 

 Wheeler, Vol. i, p. 57. Washington, D. C., 1889. 

 ' The Archaeologist, Vol, 2, p. 303, 1894. 

 ' Ibid., pp. 303-306. 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 70, No. 3 



