CEDAR CITY – On Friday afternoon 22 students from throughout Iron County took part in a summer Youth Archeology Camp, an event collaboratively sponsored by the Cedar City Bureau of Land Management, Dixie National Forest and Iron County School District.

In its 12th year, the camp is centered on teaching youth to appreciate the past in a fun and enjoyable atmosphere by connecting them with the history of their own region through first hand scientific experiences.

“We want to leave them with a love for the past and to be good stewards of these resources for the future so that their kids will be able to enjoy these sites just as they do today,” said Nathan Thomas, archeologist for the Cedar City Field Office.

Thomas, in conjunction with Marian “Omar” Jacklin, Forest Heritage Program Manager for the Dixie National Forest and Pam Chattfield, an educator with Three Peaks Elementary, coordinated this year’s event, which included a partial site excavation, the study of area pictographs and an overview of archeological sciences.

For student Mallorie Melling, the archeology studies were the most interesting part of the camp. She enjoyed learning about the care taken for each artifact in terms of carefully cleaning and dating fragments. Now when Melling encounters archeological artifacts, she knows just what to do.

“You can look at them, but you don’t want to take them because it’s like a missing piece of the story,” Melling said after painting a pictograph replica with yucca leaves.

Student Abbie Braun wanted to attend the camp after reviewing the schedule.

“It looked fun,” Bruan said Friday as she sat in the shade at Enoch City Park twisting the wires she’d been given into perfect replicas of split twig figurines or miniature big horn sheep.

While Braun had studied the American Indian history of the region she learned even more from this week’s camp.

“I read a thick book about them,” she said. “This helps me learn more about them if I can’t grasp the concept from a book.”

Chattfield, who has devoted the past 12 summers to the camp, loves the take-away message children gain.

“This is pure teaching because they actually experience the science rather than only reading it in a text book or watching a video in class,” Chattfield said of the continuing education event which also helped five children earn scouting merit badges. “They experience every aspect of the science because they’re out there, doing the hands on work.”

For Taime Clark, the camp helped her better visualize the ancient inhabitants of the area.

“I think that it would have been pretty cool to meet them. They’ve been interesting to learn about,” Clark said.

Taelor Beeson said she gained an appreciation for the culture they studied because life then was “nothing like today because they didn’t have the things we do now.”

For more information on next year’s Youth Archeology Camp contact Bureau of Land Management Archeologist Nathan Thomas at (435) 865-3031 or Marian “Omar” Jacklin, Forest Heritage Program Manager for the Dixie National Forest at (435) 865-3746.