Scientists: Don't make ancient site a rail hub

[Adsos Letter]

Source: The Salt Lake Tribune
Brandon Loomis

Tomorrow's commuter trains and a railside development could rob Utahns of a full understanding of their state's ancient past if the Legislature allows construction on the site of a buried village in Draper, archaeologists say.

It's a site where a preliminary dig in 2007 found tantalizing evidence that archaic American Indians up to 3,000 years ago were farming and cooking corn -- hundreds of years before modern scientists previously believed farming had reached the Great Basin.

"It could reshape our understanding of the development of agriculture in the West," said Matthew Seddon, a consulting archaeologist and member of the Utah Professional Archaeological Council.

Developer Whitewater VII Holdings has preliminary

city approval to build a transit-oriented village around a planned FrontRunner rail station on private land farther north, though the Utah Transit Authority prefers a swap for state land that includes the buried ancient village.

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_11821743