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The Story of Five Finger RidgeThe State of Utah was building the I-70 freeway through Clear Creek Canyon. The required archaeological study had been conducted and the only significant site, known as Icicle Bench, was found at the canyon’s east entrance.The excavation of Icicle Bench, conducted by Brigham Young University’s Office of Public archaeology, became a field trip destination for local schools. As one visiting student was getting back on the bus, he said, “Hey, my dad knows where there is better stuff than this.” That night the boy’s father contacted the archaeologists.The next morning the boy’s father took the scientists to the top of a 160 foot high hill soon to be known as Five Finger Ridge. The knoll contained over 100 structures, more than any other known Fremont site. The irony of the site is that archaeologists had walked around its base and studied aerial photographs of the knoll, but never suspected it as a site.Twenty years earlier, the boy’s father had visited the site with his Sunday School class. The class members had promised to keep it a secret; however, with the hilltop scheduled to be removed for fill, the boy’s father felt it was time to let others know in order to save the artifacts and information at the site.The archaeologists excavated the site, and as soon as they completed an area, the bulldozers came in and tore away the mountains, but the information was gathered and the artifacts preserved.After the discovery of the large village at Five Finger Ridge, a grassroots effort was undertaken to preserve the artifacts here, where they were found. This effort culminated in the building of the present State Park, Museum, and Vistor’s Center. The Visitor Center and Museum house the artifacts found in the Clear Creek Canyon excavation.
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