Leigh Marymor presents "Western Message Petroglyphs: Enigmatic Rock-engraving Panels in Western US States"

Join us Wednesday, October 14 at 6pm for a presentation from Leigh Marymor, discussing "Western Message Petroglyphs: Enigmatic Rock-engraving Panels in Western US States."

Carved across eight Western states between 1880 and 1930—during the era of Manifest Destiny and the early industrialization of the West—the Western Message Petroglyphs form a distinctive picture‑text tradition created by an author drawing on published Native American and pan‑world symbolic systems. This lecture introduces how Marymor approaches transliteration and translation, grounding each image in reliable ethnographic sources and tracing how narrative meaning emerges through sequence, repetition, and layout. Through vivid examples, the talk reveals a voice that ranges from humor and moral insight to reflections on injustice, offering audiences a rare window into the cultural tensions and human experiences of the late‑nineteenth‑ and early twentieth- century West.

About Leigh Maymor

Leigh Marymor is a Research Associate at the Museum of Northern Arizona and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Community Education from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. He has been interested in rock art conservation and the literature of rock art studies for forty years. A Past President of the American Rock Art Research Association, he also co-founded the Bay Area Rock Art Research Association with Dr. Paul Freeman in 1983.

This event is free and open to the public at the Bears Ears Education Center, 567 W Main St in Bluff, UT.