HICKMAN PECTOL SHIELDS by DOROTHY

PECTOL SHIELDS

Wayne Wonderland

By Dorothy Delilah Hickman Pectol

In the spring of 1926 we had gone to Paradise Canyon with some friends and found an Indian grave in a cave. From this time on we became very interested in hunting for these artifacts. In August this same year Dad and I unearthed three buffalo shields, each highly colored, each telling its own story with different shapes, lines and formations. Their origin is unknown.

People from different museums have seen them, taken pictures and tried to find out their origin. It had never been decide just how old they are. Soft animal skins with marks similar to our Temple marks were found close by. Dad interpretation, the story and history these shields and skins tell. He displayed and lectured extensively on these items.

We made shelves and show cases in the upper part of the store and used it as a little museum. The relics we found and some that were given and loaned to us have been used as a collection in our store and home for years. Several pieces have been on display in the L.D.S. Church museum on Temple Square in Salt Lake City. Because of an antiquity law passed in 1925, the Government claimed them, and put them with the ones we had. They have been boxed and locked up these past three years since Dad's death, waiting for someone to get a place ready for them to be displayed again. Where they are at this time we do not know. It was my understanding they were to be displayed in the Visitor's Center in Wayne Wonderland, or Capitol Reef as it is now known.

As early as 1910 Dad started calling the Park area "WAYNE WONDERLAND". It will always by Wayne Wonderland to me. Hopefully, some day the collection will be gathered together and displayed under the name of Bishop Pectol's Relic Collection. Some of the happiest hays of my life have been spent with Dad in the hills hunting relics.

However, as a child in Milford, we went into the sand knolls and unearthed many jugs, etc. We didn't realize their value. We destroyed them as fast as we found them. As early as 1911 or 1912 the Startup Candy Company at Provo, Utah made a candy bar for us giving it the name of Wayne Wonderland.


Wayne Wonderland is coming to it's own, and some day will be a popular as its sister National Parks.