Utah canyon gas leases off the market

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has given up plans to allow gas drilling in a Utah canyon that was home to Anasazi Indians.

Parcels in Nine Mile Canyon in eastern Utah were on a list of leases on public land to be sold this month, The Salt Lake Tribune reported. The sale is the last before Barack Obama becomes president.

The BLM also canceled proposed leases in some areas near national parks. The National Park Service objected that sensitive areas bordering Canyonlands and Arches parks and Dinosaur National Monument were on the list.

Nine Mile Canyon, a 40-mile-long valley near Price, served as a corridor for early settlers. The canyon has been nicknamed "the world's longest art gallery" because of the 1,000 or more Indian rock art sites. There are also hundreds of remains of houses, granaries and rock shelters, many of them still that have yet to be excavated.