Wyoming's Cultural Geology Guide
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Trapper’s Point e Beartooth Scenic Byway e Flight of the Nez Percé Paleo-Indian Discoveries Wyoming’s Cultural Geology Guide Takes Trapper’s Point was named for its Straddling the border between Refusing to sign a treaty ceding their lands to the United Between 11,500 and 13,000 years ago, this red ochre mine Visitors Back in Time location near the 19th century fur Wyoming and Montana is the States and move onto a reservation, in June 1877 more is considered one of the oldest mining sites in all of North trappers’ rendezvous sites where Beartooth Scenic Byway, an than 750 Nez Percé men, women, and children, with 2,000 America. Discovered at the historic Sunrise Iron Mine, Video Vignettes Wyoming is a state with tremendous and varied mountain men gathered to trade auto route over one of the most horses led the U.S. Army on a 1,200-mile chase across the near Hartville, red ochre mined by Paleo-Indians was used geologic resources. ese same resources have also their goods. e narrow ridge on formidable obstacles to modern Paci c Northwest and the plains. e Army hoped to trap as a pigment. Similar red ochre has also been recorded at Scan the QR codes with a smartphone contributed to our cultural identity, dating back to which an overlook is situated also forms a bottleneck on transportation in North America. e Beartooth Plateau is the Nez Percé as they left the Yellowstone Plateau near prehistoric burial sites around the world. Archaeologists to access the video vingnettes featured the days of early human occupation, about 13,000 the route of the longest large mammal migration corridor the result of mountain building, 70-55 million years ago, the impenetrable Clarks Fork excavating the ancient mine at the Sunrise location have years ago. Rock formations served as canvases in the lower 48 states. Archaeological evidence indicates and of the Pleistocene glaciation. In 1882, Gen. Sheridan Canyon. e Nez Percé executed also discovered Clovis points made of blue, agate-type on the map and listed below. for spiritual art, landforms served as markers for that pronghorn antelope have used this route for more crossed the plateau where the highway follows today. a feinting maneuver and escaped material along with other Paleo-Indian artifacts. e area westward migrations, and minerals have led to the than 7,000 years. Today, near Pinedale, the route includes north. ey made it 40 miles is rich in all sorts of hard source rock known as chert, establishment of historic mining towns. a wildlife corridor or bridge over the highway; a project American Indians of Yellowstone from the Canadian border before along with the limestones and designed and constructed by the Wyoming Department of e volcanic resources of Yellowstone have in uenced surrendering. Chief Joseph said, dolomites of the Guernsey and e Origin of Landscape: A Guide to Wyoming’s Transportation. American Indian cultures for thousands of years. Elders “I will ght no more, forever.” Hartville formations. Cultural Geology allows users to see and virtually have described the geysers and Pumpkin Buttes and Uranium Yellowstone explore the nexus between geological phenomena, Pinedale Anticline geothermal hot springs as spiri- ese buttes contain uranium created from the ash of vol- Archaeologists and geologists landscape, and cultural beginnings. e Pinedale Anticline and Jonah eld are vitally im- tually signi cant, and the use of canic eruptions some 50 million have collaborated to better inves- • Nez Percé portant for the nation’s energy needs. Looking out at the obsidian derived from lava is a years ago. is is the site where tigate the source of the chipping • Beartooth Scenic Byway is intelligent travel program includes a Wyoming sagebrush landscape, when driving south of town, it is hard well-documented source for tool in 1951 J.D. Love rst discov- material. At the Sunrise Mine • American Indians/ State Geological Survey website with an interactive to believe that this geologic anticline includes one of the making. Recent discoveries also ered uranium in a Wyoming sed- they noted a rich deposit of chert, jasper, and quartzite, Yellowstone Plateau map, feature stories, photos, and video vignettes largest gas elds in the world. suggest that prehistoric people imentary basin. Love’s discovery materials commonly used to create tools and projectile on each site represented on the tour. e videos Since drilling began in the late may have lived year-round at high elevations. Whitebark led to uranium fever: Prospectors points. e agate material may have resulted from a mass include scienti c experts discussing the cultural and 1990s, this area has provided pine nuts, along with mountain sheep and deer, may have and ranchers postured for potential stakes. What historian movement of rock, or by water movement along faults in geological signi cance of each site featured on the nearly 40 trillion cubic feet of been important high elevation food resources for native T.A. Larson calls “the complex pattern of rights to land and the area. Green River Basin tour. natural gas to the nation. peoples. minerals” in Wyoming led to confusion in all directions. • Great Divide Basin e Sunrise Mine • White Mountain Pet- Funding for this program was provided by the Mining for copper was short-lived at roglyphs Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund e Oregon/California Trails the Sunrise Mine, from 1881 until • Oregon Trail e Oregon/California Trails, an over 1887. During the 1880s, as copper www.wsgs.wyo.gov 2,000-mile long route from Missouri mining progressed, it became obvious • Trona Resources to Oregon and California, enabled that there was also extensive iron at • Opal, Wyoming the migration of nearly 400,000 the site. rough the promotional early pioneers and farmers, as well as e orts of Charles Guernsey and I.S. gold miners, traders, and business- Bartlett for a mining district, Colo- Pinedale Anticline men to the West Coast in the 1840s rado Fuel and Iron Co. optioned the and 1850s. e trail followed many claims and eventually took owner- • Trapper’s Point natural travel corridors, including ship. Iron production began about • Modern Day Journey river valleys and mountain passes. 1900. Miners were able to “let loose” of the Pronghorn e route was grueling with trech- in the nearby town of Hartville, • Oil and Gas Resources erous river established in 1884 during the copper crossings days. By By Chamois L. Andersen and naviga- the 1900s, Como Blu there were Maps by Suzanne C. Luhr tion of the Museums research by Andrea M. Loveland Continental 10 saloons • Como Blu and the Editing by Suzanne C. Luhr and Andrea M. Loveland Divide. Nu- in Hartville “Bone Wars” Wyoming State Geological Survey, 2015 merous geologic landmarks, such as and other Independence Rock marked the trail. establishments for entertainment. “Spanish” Diggings Vedauwoo Paleo-Indian artifacts were discovered Recreation Area White Mountain Petroglyphs at Spanish Diggings within the Hart- Evidence of native people who in- ville Uplift. ese ancient quarries • Vedauwoo Recreation habited the Green River Basin from were rst thought to be the result Area about 1,000 to 1,500 years ago to the of gold-prospecting expeditions by historic era, can be seen in the soft Spanish sandstone explorers. of the However, Hartville Uplift Wasatch by 1935 Formation. archaeolo- • Red Ochre and Clovis is site gists began contains docu- • Sunrise Mine/Hartville rock art menting the 10,000+ year history of • “Spanish” Diggings depicting hundreds of animals and Indian groups on the High Plains, people, from bison and bear to horses including the vast network of pits and and warriors. is site was of great tunnels left by groups of native hunt- Powder River Basin spiritual signi cance to Wyoming’s ers who quarried stone for projectile early peoples who created the rock points, knives, scrapers, and other • Pumpkin Buttes and art. tools. Spanish Diggings artifacts have Uranium been found throughout the plains. Trona Resources Great Divide Basin Vedauwoo Recreation Area Como Blu , the “Bone Wars” Sediments from the ancient Modern-day travelers on Inter- Rising from the Wyoming plains is a rocky oasis of giant Como Blu is an anticline that Lake Gosiute, today contain the state 80, west of Rawlins, cross granite rock features sculpted by the forces of erosion. is contains mudstones, sandstones, Check out the online guide with feature stories, largest deposits of trona in the the Continental Divide twice. geological phenomenon is a destination hot spot by visitors siltstones, and limestones of the videos and photos on the tour sites. world. Between the southern Wind to the Medicine Bow National Forest. Upper Jurassic Morrison For- www.wsgs.wyo.gov/public-info/cultural-geology River Mountains and Atlantic mation deposited in rivers and While many of the Earth’s Rim, southwest of Rawlins, The rocks at Vedauwoo crystalized in Precambrian oodplains about 150 million years ago when dinosaurs Tour Guides minerals such as trona are used for industrial purposes, the divide splits, forming the Great Divide Basin along the time, 1.4 billion years ago, long before hard-shelled roamed the area. Como Blu is the area of some of the rst Wayne Sutherland, Wyoming State Geological Survey consumers may not realize they also bene t from them in crest of the continent. It is also called the Red Desert Basin fossils appeared in the rock major discoveries of dinosaur remains in the world. e Julie Francis, Wyoming Department of Transportation Tom Drean, Wyoming State Geological Survey a number of their everyday products. Wyoming leads the for the red soil derived from Eocene formations that cover record. area received this distinction because of the sheer number Brent Breithaupt, U.S.