It’s easy to forget that the world didn’t begin with books, museums and the Internet. Instead we spoke to each other through art left behind in caves and on canyon walls. Ancient groups would leave their mark on the world with carvings that told stories about the lives they were living. These petroglyphs are a snapshot of a world we have left far behind.

For one man, his discoveries of this ancient artwork began as a small child in Winslow, Az. He and his family moved to a ranch near White Mountains in the 1940s. Brantley Baird told Atlas Obscura that his family was shocked to find the 5,000-acre farmland they lived on was full of the ancient petroglyphs.

Years later, archaeologists would date the glyphs made by the Ancestral Pueblo people to be nearly 9,000-years-old. But Baird said at the time, his family was just focused on surviving on their cattle ranch, and had little time to deal with the caves. 

Photo by Alan Levine

Back then,” he said, “you wasn’t worrying about a few petroglyphs on the walls. You were trying to make a living with a few old cows.”

But as Baird grew older, he began to explore the land. He said he found his first piece of pottery when he was just 11 years old. “You never know what you’re going to find if you leave out here in the morning on an old horse,” Baird said. “Sometimes you’ll find it in the bottom of a canyon after a flood, or find it under ledges, you never know. The people lived everywhere, and stuff got covered up over the years.”

Eventually the family found a way to honor the artwork left behind by building a museum on their land. Inside, the Bairds showcased a variety of jugs they say were used to carry water, as well as some that were used to grow crops. They are designed with Ancestral Pueblo artwork, made up of geometric shapes.

The family filled the museum with their finds, as well as items that showcased the land’s rich history. The Bairds also began conducting tours of the land and caves when they opened the museum more than 25 years ago. They eventually opened a second museum nearby.

Photo by Alan Levine

The original museum is still run by Baird, along with his granddaughter, Tori. They both lead tours, which are free to the public. The tours cover 3 miles of the property, and include a pueblo found by archaeologists, as well as some homes that were made out of rocks and muds. 

The tour also showcases excavated Anasazi dwellings, a Navajo sweat lodge, alongside the petroglyphs. New items are still being discovered on the land. So far, 3,000 petroglyphs have been found. They end the tour with a drive to the canyon, which drops down 1,000 feet on all sides with the exception of one. “The good Lord only made one place they could get down to get water or bathe,” Baird said. In the canyon, all the petroglyphs are viewable. 

“Everyone has their own theory, their own story,” he said, on what the meaning of the petroglyphs might be. Some of the most popular, Baird said, are a glyph that shows a woman giving birth, and another of a woman with a skirt like a bear paw. “People say, ‘Do you own this place?’” he said. “And I say no, the good Lord owns it, I’m only here to take care of it. It belongs to everybody. It’s history, and we want to share it with people.”

Source: Atlas Obscura