Keith McCord Talks About Covering Discovery Of Canyonlands Ruins

MOAB, Utah – Before signing off the air and retiring, longtime KSL journalist Keith McCord talked about one story that stood out among 39 years of news reporting.

When asked about a story that he remembered fondly, he talked about a story that took a ton of work to get.

On a fluke, Keith noticed something from high above Canyonlands that turned into a new Utah treasure.

“I was covering energy stories back at the time, and I was in the helicopter a lot. We flew down into the Moab/Canyonlands area,” he said. “A few times we went down there, we would notice Anasazi Indian ruins high up on a cliff – cliff dwellings – and we thought maybe there’s something in there.”

Keith said he convinced station managers to send him, Chopper 5, and two photographers to search the area.

“We spent a week down there, and we coordinated with the (National Park Service) to go looking for these Native American ruins,” he said.

Their search began in an extremely remote park of the park, and required significant effort.

“One day, we lowered a photographer down a cliff, along with a park ranger,” he said.

One the climber was below, he found pottery and other artifacts still intact.

“A ranger with Canyonlands National Park told us that, as far as the Park Service knew, this site had probably been undisturbed. Upon inspection, remnants of Indian life, hundreds and hundreds of years old, remained,” Keith said. “I’ve never seen so much untouched stuff in a ruin before.”

Among the items found were a big black on white bowl, and two grey bowls and basket.

“It was a blast, and I learned a whole heck of a lot about the history of Southern Utah,” Keith said.

The amazing find almost didn’t happen.

“We didn’t find that ancient pottery until the last day of shooting,” Keith said. “I was getting pretty nervous – and then it turned out to be awesome. I only wish that we were shooting in (high definition) back then.”