Utah Cultural Astronomy Project

The Utah Cultural Astronomy Project (UCAP) began in 2017 as an archeoastronomy survey of Clear Creek Canyon in south central Utah, home to Fremont Indian State Park and one of the largest excavated Fremont settlements. The canyon contains a museum and more than 3,600 rock art images carved and painted along its walls.

John Lundwall, PhD, (cultural anthropologist) and John McHugh, MA, (lead archeologist) launched the project by surveying the Sun Wheel panel at the canyon’s west end, where they documented a sun dagger passing through the panel’s central wheel motif a few weeks before the summer solstice. Over subsequent years they refined their methods, developed a standardized rock art survey template, and expanded the team with additional researchers and specialists—growth that ultimately formalized into UCAP. The team has since focused its work primarily in Clear Creek Canyon and the Uintah Basin. They primarily study Fremont sites.

The UCAP team applies the MORPH model to every rock art panel they survey.

1) MEASURE

They begin by documenting the panel’s physical characteristics—its dimensions, adjacent imagery, and relevant geological features. Shadow‑casting rocks and edges are examined for erosion, breakage, or intentional modification. The team also records panel orientation, surrounding landscape features, and the skyscape, noting sunrise and sunset positions on the local horizon.

2) OBSERVE

Next, they study how the panel interacts with sunlight, moonlight (when applicable), and the local landscape and wildlife. When a potential solar interaction is identified, the team attempts to falsify it by tracking the movement of the sun/shadow line across the panel throughout the year. A complete observational cycle can take months or even years.

3) RECORD

Findings are documented through site forms, still photography, timelapse sequences, and hand‑drawn sketches, with spectral photography and occasional LiDAR imaging used when beneficial.

4) PROTECT

UCAP works to safeguard sites through public education. Because vandalism is widespread across rock art sites in the American Southwest, the team regularly engages with the public to promote proper site etiquette. They present at Utah State Parks events, the Utah Rock Art Research Association, schools, and community gatherings. John McHugh, MA, also directs a nationally recognized middle‑school archaeology club, The Shovel Bums, training younger students in archaeology and site stewardship.

5) HYPOTHESIZE

Finally, the team develops cautious, research‑based interpretations of the imagery. Because rock art interpretation is inherently difficult—and often impossible—they rely on the best ethnographic scholarship available, incorporating both professional and Indigenous perspectives. Interpretations remain tightly constrained by measured data and observed phenomena and are always framed as provisional.

UCAP has a Three-Fold Mission:

1. To research and discover the cultural astronomy of ancient rock art, especially within Utah;
2. To record, preserve, and protect ancient sites for future generations;
3. To educate the public in the proper preservation and appropriate interaction with rock panels and Native American sites.

John Lundwall earned his BA in English Literature from BYU and his MA and PhD in comparative myth and religion from Pacifica Graduate Institute, home of the Joseph Campbell Library and Archives. He teaches at Pacifica as an Associate Professor. He has served on editorial boards, presented at numerous conferences, and led tours to the sites central to his research.

Lundwall is deeply involved in his community and state. He is a founding board member of the Utah Valley Astronomy Club, a nonprofit that partners with Utah’s state and national parks to support their astronomy programs. He has presented at astronomy festivals state park events and has assisted parks in achieving IDA dark sky certification. He is also the Project Leader of the Utah Cultural Astronomy Project and an active podcaster in his field. Lundwall has published several articles and one book, Mythos and Cosmos: Mind and Meaning in the Oral Age.

John McHugh earned a bachelor’s degree in special education from West Chester University and a master’s degree in Archaeology from BYU, specializing in archeoastronomy. He is a licensed Utah archaeologist with extensive excavation experience across the Intermountain West, Syria, and Jordan. He supervises the “Shovel Bums” archaeology club (grades 5–8), whose students catalogue prehistoric Native American rock art for the State Historic Preservation Office and the Bureau of Land Management, and who periodically process artifacts and participate in excavations.

McHugh serves on the board of the Utah Rock Art Research Association and is the lead archaeologist for the Utah Cultural Astronomy Project. He has published multiple peer reviewed articles and once presented a paper on Noah’s Flood at the Society of Biblical Literature Conference at Creighton University.

His wife, Kirsten, teaches English Literature and the Capstone Project at Juan Diego High School. In their free time they enjoy visiting Native American rock art sites, hiking, reading, collecting books, and hosting quiet dinners with their three grown children. They live in a historic 1883 home in Salt Lake City with their notably chunky cat, Berenstain Bear.

McHugh, J., Lundwall, J., Nagengast-Stevens, E. Interpreting the apparent

lunar symbolism on a Fremont Indian pendant.

Archaeoastronomy and Ancient Technologies 2022, 10(2), 30-55.

McHugh, J., Lundwall, J. Larson, A. Using Puebloan Ethnography to

Explain the function and Meaning of a Solar-Lunar Petroglyph at Fremont

Indian State Park. American Indian Rock Art 2021, Vol. 47., 173-185.

McHugh, J., Lundwall, J., Howells, T. A prehistoric Native American

pictograph that signals the summer solstice. Archeoastronomy and

Ancient Technologies 2021, 9(1), 1-31.

Lundwall, J. McHugh, J. Sun Writing: A Field Guide to the Cultural

Astronomy of Fremont Indian State Park. TBD.