GOSHEN COUNTY – Almost 60 years after Jim Duguid and Malcolm McKnight discovered some artifacts in a rain-washed arroyo northeast of Guernsey, the site of the find – which came to be known as Hell Gap – was officially designated as a National Historic Landmark in ceremonies Saturday.
With the designation, Hell Gap becomes only the 27th such listed site in the state.
Representatives from the University of Wyoming, the state of Wyoming, Platte and Goshen Counties, and the Town of Guernsey joined many area residents at Hell Gap Saturday afternoon to celebrate the official unveiling and ribbon cutting for the huge stone marker near the site’s entrance.
Two large brass plaques on the face of the monument recognize the site’s donors and supporters as well as the official NHL designation from the U. S. Department of the Interior.

Throughout a 90-minute program emceed by University of Wyoming Archaeology Professor Marcel Kornfeld, a virtual “Who’s Who” of people who have ties to the site in some capacity spoke about the value of Hell Gap and what it represents to the world in terms of understanding man’s historic journey through the time period of 13,000 and 8,500 years ago on the plains of North America.
Excavations at the site in the 1960s were supported by Harvard University, the American Philosophical Society and the National Geographic Society, among others. Ongoing reinvestigations of the Hell Gap site and collections have been conducted in cooperation with the Wyoming Archaeological Foundation and the current property owner. Funding for the continuing research has come from a variety of sources.
In their comments, Kornfeld and others stressed their gratitude for all the original landowners who recognized the historic value and need to preserve the area. Due to their vision and willingness to release the acreage at a much reduced value, the site will be forever preserved for study and provide information about our past for generations to come. Among the many speakers were Dr. George Frison, University of Wyoming Professor Emeritus for whom the University’s Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology is named. Frison and Kornfeld both actively worked in several of the excavations at Hell Gap.   
Congratulatory letters were also read by representatives of Governor Matt Mead, Senators Mike Enzi and John Barrasso and Congesswoman Liz Cheney. Jim Duguid and his wife were also in attendance, along with many others who have worked at the site during the various digs.  
With an effort to reflect the site’s authenticity, the speakers were invited to join in cutting sections of a 15-foot red ribbon with pieces of red chert, a sedimentary rock used by the original inhabitants of the site in the making of stone tools. Chert was the preferred material for tools due to the sharp edges it holds when broken.
Following the dedication, a lunch was served and tours of the area were conducted.