Where's Waldo's Ruins?
In 1951, Utahn Waldo Wilcox bought 1,350 acres of desert ranch land on Range Creek, somewhere between the town of Green River and Desolation Canyon. After more than 50 years of ranching, Wilcox recently sold to a public land trust. But this relic of the Old West offered a bit more: tucked into the cliffs and canyons of Wilcox Ranch are somewhere between 2,000 and 5,000 archeological sites from the Fremont and Anasazi Indians, dating back more than 800 years. There are granaries, rock art, cliff dwellings, and burial grounds.
And unlike similar ruins on public lands which over the decades have been looted and vandalized, these sites are pristine.
"I didn't let people go in there to destroy it," 74-year-old Wilcox told the Deseret News. "The less people know about this, the better. So untouched are the ruins, according to Wilcox, that beneath some cliff ledges he can see exposed human skeletons.
With the news of the purchase, a hoard of 50 journalists descended on Wilcox's ranch, where he proclaimed himself "just an old hillbilly" and amused them with salty bits of wisdom.
"I wanted to keep it the way it is," he told USA Today, noting that he was too old to continue ranching. "If I could have turned back the clock to when I was 20, I wouldn't have sold it."
"I'm afraid the public will ruin it," he said of the new arrangement. "You'll be awfully lucky if there's anything here for your kids."