The Little Bald Mountain Site
Creators: name: Bentzen, Raymond C.
Publisher: name: The Wyoming Archaeological Society
Year: 2008
Subjects: subject: Bighorn Mountains
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/geographic-keyword/9144/bighorn-mountains
subject: Late Prehistoric
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/temporal-keyword/3245/late-prehistoric
subject: Late Archaic
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/temporal-keyword/32/late-archaic
subject: Protohistoric
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/temporal-keyword/147/protohistoric
subject: Undifferentiated Native American
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/culture-keyword/9573/undifferentiated-native-american
subject: Little Bald Mountain
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/site-name/132579/little-bald-mountain
subject: Ceramic
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/material-type/1/ceramic
subject: Chipped Stone
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/material-type/2/chipped-stone
subject: Fauna
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/material-type/4/fauna
subject: Ground Stone
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/material-type/7/ground-stone
subject: Metal
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/material-type/11/metal
subject: Mineral
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/material-type/12/mineral
subject: yuma
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/169997/yuma
subject: fire blackened rock
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/170003/fire-blackened-rock
subject: summer
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/170004/summer
subject: Charcoal
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/135970/charcoal
subject: Hunting Camp
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/7464/hunting-camp

description: In 1945, while surface-hunting for artifacts in the high country of the Big Horn Mountains, I discovered what appeared to be an ancient village site and buffalo-killing area situated in a saddle on the main divide immediately south of Little Bald Mountain at an elevation of 9,000 feet. Two small drainage ditches for the then little-used Wyoming Highway #14 had exposed arrowheads and bison bones, and an itinerant sheepherder informed me that in past years his daughter had gathered many buffalo skulls from that immediate area, stacked them up by the road and sold them to the occasional tourists who ventured that way. The apparent area of occupation covered about ten acres, all of which except the road and ditches was heavily sodded. In 1955 five acres in the middle of the area was destroyed by the building of a new highway across the site and brought in dozens of artifact collectors who literally followed the earth-moving machinery to pick up the exposed artifacts. Our expedition on this site was scheduled to start on August 3rd, and a week earlier a contract was let by the U.S. Forest Service for the construction of a new Hunt Mountain road which would cut right through the proposed site of our excavation. The forest supervisor very kindly informed the road-builders to keep off our site until we were finished. So, by split-timing, we have been able to contribute to the science of archaeology a site which would otherwise have been lost forever.