SUNRISE – Whether you’re in your mid-teens or mid-90s, you can’t help but feel excitement when the dirt beneath your feet reveals treasure that has been hidden for thousands of years.
Just ask the 10 youth involved in recovering artifacts from a Paleo-Indian site at Sunrise and their on-site, personal, world-renown archaeologist. The combined efforts of youth and experience are beginning to pay off. After carefully scraping their way through thousands of years of soil deposits at the old iron ore mining town, signs of the ancient past are coming to the surface.
Dr. Georege Frison, professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of Wyoming, visits the site, Powars II, on a regular basis, encouraging the youth as they sweat their way through a hundreds of years of redeposited materials in an effort to learn who lived here all those centuries ago, and what their lives were like.
During a July 6 visit, Dr. Frison shared a bit of impatience, and a lot of enthusiasm, about the project, now in its fourth year.
“We’re testing to try and get a handle on the stratigraphy,” Frison said, while sitting in the cab of his pickup, watching disciplined teenagers haul buckets of dirt to the top of the excavation and set them next to a screen where the contents will be checked for any sign of human occupation.
“It’s kind of dull now, but it has to be done. It’s taken about 10 days to get these deep trenches, but it’s something we have to find out.”
And about two hours later, some of what they have been searching for was discovered in a screen. A stone tool, a blade, brought smiles to all faces. The artifact, a Clovis blade, was discovered about 10 feet below the surface. Made of John Voight chert, another surprise discovered at the Powars II site, the thin blades had been worked, making them into tools about 4 inches long.
A short time later, what appears to be an “ochre pit” was uncovered in another unit. Faint traces of the faded red color became visible as the amateur archaeologist methodically scraped the soil surface. The purpose of these small “pits” is unknown.
Another stone tool, a hammer stone, still showing faint pink coloring from the ochre it was probably used to crush, was uncovered. Each item discovered is bagged, numbered and its position recorded in the project documentation.
The hours of sweat, grime and frustration had paid off. And, undoubtedly, more hours of the same await as the patient troweling continues in the search for knowledge of a society that existed about 13,000 years ago.
According to George Zeimens, the current objective of the project is to test the site, to locate occupation areas. Previous work was to salvage artifacts from redeposited soils and other materials.
While the rewards can seldom be guaranteed to prove important to history, the exercise in perseverance and group cooperation can prove valuable to the youth who spend eight weeks of their summer, under supervision, trying to open the past for modern study.
The youth program, Expanding Environments, now in its 30th year, has been offering area youth, and those from other regions, life skills that will prove valuable beyond the hot, sweaty, dirty days they spend uncovering some mysteries of living thousands of years ago on the plains and foothills of eastern Wyoming.
Each of the past four summers has found youth of different ages and backgrounds toiling in the heat, or cold, doing their part in revealing bits and pieces of that long-gone lifestyle, which is depicted through the artifacts they discover.
The 2017 crew includes three high school age girls and seven young men, from eighth to 12th grade. Some are local residents, while others came from the Minneapolis, Minn., area. They will all go home wiser and more aware of how early Americans lived.
In addition to program directors George and Geri Zeimens, Ryan Bush, who studies archaeology at the University of Wyoming, signed on to help supervise the youth program.
Youth include Brooke Cook of Guernsey, Sarah Keene of Chugwater, and Jenny Manus of Lingle. Other students are Doug Holthus, Gabe Plant and AJ Gaddis of Wheatland, and Carlson Nelson and Christopher Lee of Minneapolis, Minn. Preston Cook of Guernsey and Dominck Wallace of Torrington, are also involved the the program. For some, this is their first experience, while it is a second, third or even fourth time for others. A few former participants have gone on to occupations related to archaeology.
Each student has his or her individual opinion of the program. They write their impressions in a daily journal that is reviewed by Bush.
Jenny Manus was excited that after only 18 days, the young ladies were sharing secrets. She said they learn to deal with frustrations, as well as how to work with other people.
Sarah said that even though it was hard work, it was fun, and they learned patience. In addition, they get to take small trips, such as one coming up to Evans Plunge in South Dakota.
This is the fourth year for Brooke. She has learned patience and enjoys the team work that develops among the youth.
Impatient to be off on the regular evening hike after supper, Gabe Plant and Carlson Nelson were direct and to the point in their thoughts. Gabe, 14, and in his second year, said the program is a unique educational opportunity. He was first attracted to it because he enjoyed “The Mummy” movie. So far his big event has been his discovery of a human canine tooth.
Nelson, in eighth grade, is following in his brother’s footsteps, after he participated in the program two years. Nelson said the dig is interesting, even if you don’t find anything, but the highlight for him has been the opportunity to skin a snake. And he plans to return,
Ryan Bush, who has a paid position, is an anthropology student at UW. From Wheatland, he said, “I love this kind of stuff. The older the better. “It’s a blast trying to figure it out. And I’m staying in a ghost town! How cool is that?”
It will be ineresting to find out if Bush’s enthusiasm, and that of the younger students, lasts as long as Frison’s.
“Last year’s work was salvage,” Frison explained later in the evening. “Now we’re moving into a different testing program. Later this fall, we’ll do some real careful work in a different area.
“It’s a great project, and we’ve learned a heck of a lot. It may seem like a waste of time, getting this material out of the way. But we’ll soon write a paper, and then the professionals can look at it, and analyze what we’ve done.”
A Wyoming native, and respected around the world, Frison expects research will be ongoing at the site.
“They’ll be researching here forever,” he predicted from his front row seat in the pickup. “There’s so much we don’t understand.”
