A large boulder marked with ancient carvings has made its way home after nearly a century away.

Once displayed on the lawn of a Latter-day Saint church meetinghouse, the sacred Fremont-era rock was recently flown by helicopter to a protected site near the Utah-Idaho border after years of work by tribal leaders, historians, and preservationists, as The Salt Lake Tribune reports.

The 2,500-pound petroglyph-bearing stone, believed to be 1,200 years old, was created by the Fremont people—ancestors of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation.

From Church Lawn to Helicopter Ride

For roughly 80 years, the stone sat in plain sight outside the First Ward meetinghouse in Tremonton, Utah. Local tales suggest it got there thanks to sheer muscle—possibly from a troop of Boy Scouts or a group of determined locals, back in the days when moving sacred objects was treated more like a weekend project than a historic error.

Only in 2011 did amateur archaeologists note the rock’s likely origins. That kicked off more than a decade of coordination between the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, state officials, and the Shoshone tribe.

The Church admitted it had “no legal obligation” to return the stone, but officials emphasized instead a “moral and ethical” duty—something you don’t often hear from institutions today without a lawyer in the room.

Restoration Begins in Provo

The process picked up speed on December 8, when crews began carefully removing the boulder from the concrete base it had been cemented into outside the church building.

A day later, the relic arrived in Provo for a unique conservation treatment led by the Midwest Art Conservation Center. Experts used bamboo and plastic tools—no harsh chemicals—proving that sometimes, gentler approaches do more good than the modern impulse to scrub and sanitize everything in sight.

“We want to make those visible,” conservator Megan Randall said, referring to the petroglyph designs spiritually tied to the Shoshone. Those images had been obscured by lichen and weather over time.

Shoshone Leaders Witness Spiritual Homecoming

The final repatriation took place with an airlift: the stone flew north to a confidential spot near the Utah-Idaho border, away from cameras and vandals. This is particularly refreshing in an era when sacred objects are more often paraded on social media than treated with respect.

Members of the Northwestern Band gathered for a spiritual blessing during the reinstallation. Tribal leader Brad Parry framed the moment as part of a bigger restoration.

“Putting it back for us is putting a puzzle piece back into place,” said Parry, vice chair of the Northwestern Band. “Our history is so fractured... To have these positive things now that are coming out — it’s rebuilding our history.”

Two Cultures, One Shared Interest in Legacy

David Bolingbroke of the Church’s History Department reflected on the moment, saying, “I felt a strong impression that the eyes of our ancestors were upon us.” In a time of rampant secularism, it’s telling when both tribal leaders and church historians recognize a bigger meaning in history—something above case law and bureaucratic secrecy.

“They were pleased with our efforts to bring this stone back [and] put it in its rightful place,” Bolingbroke said. Common ground between faiths? Turns out it still exists, if you’re willing to put in the effort—and maybe borrow a helicopter.

Ryan Saltzgiver, a Church sites curator, noted that the Church had been working “since about that time” to make a return possible, ever since the original archaeology work in 2011.

The exact new location remains undisclosed, a smart move in a culture increasingly hostile to both tradition and property rights.