TORRINGTON – As the dry lukewarm air of night slowly gave way to a beautiful sunrise in Goshen County early Friday morning, a handful of curious residents ready to expand their minds while embarking on a brief but peaceful journey stood patiently waiting near the Fine Arts Center at Eastern Wyoming College (EWC).

These residents waited anxiously to catch the first-of-the-day provided college shuttle to finally take a beautiful little drive across sacred Wyoming countryside to visit the historically mysterious, yet almost legendary town of Sunrise Mines.

Currently owned by prominent county resident John Voight, Sunrise Mines appropriately became the inaugural site of the first-ever EWC Archaeology Symposium. Upon arrival, residents could see, smell, and feel both modern and ancient history lingering at every turn as soon as they stepped off the bus. 

The event, which ran from Thursday through Saturday last week, was what the local college hopes to be the first of many archeological and anthropological events to come. Additionally, the ongoing project is meant to spark public interest in both Sunrise and the progressive research measures of EWC. 

According to Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon, the event is a visionary piece of innovation representing the preservation of antiquated history as well as progressive first-class higher education.

Gordon addressed all guests and participants of the symposium digitally during the first night’s archeological presentations at EWC’s Auditorium. Furthermore, the Governor would give well-deserved public recognition to one particular dedicated and well-known local archeologist.

“I am very excited to see all the work you are all doing,” Gordon said in kicking off the event. “Wyoming innovative partnership was really devised to bring new opportunities, but what’s really exciting with what you all are doing is we have been able to stand up a unique opportunity for EWC in providing students to train at a world-class archeological site. George Zeimens is a remarkable anthropologist and archeologist. We think about the work here being started, and just the magic of finding these things and understanding cultures. Who was here? What were they doing? How did they live? It’s such a real educational experience, and I hope you have a wonderful few days and months working on this amazing new project.”

College President Dr. Jeffry Hawes concured with Governor Gordon, adding innovative partnerships between the college and local entities will continue to bring valued interest and economic revenue not just for EWC, but the entirety of Goshen County.

The EWC president acknowledged the recent ongoing ideas and immense hard work of the college’s newly appointed Professor of Archeology and Anthropology, Dr. Steven Howard.

“We are very excited to have all of you here for what will hopefully be the first symposium of sharing some unique and exciting things not only a part of Wyoming’s history, but a part of our community,” Dr. Hawes said. “This can allow investments back into our local communities, and in areas which could see economic impact in our own backyard. Everything from agriculture to areas of business, and one of them ties directly into tourism. Dr. Howard has joined our college here in making this investment as well as continuing to build our relationship with Sunrise Mines.”

In addition to the involvement of local historians and archeologists, the event was also prominent with the active presence of several international archeological professors visiting for the weekend; hoping to find out first-hand what Sunrise Mines has to offer.

Or more specifically, what it has to reveal.

Among the various professors who loaned their time and expertise in addition to traveling a great distance to the event included Dr. Bruce Bradley of Colorado, Dr. Astolofo Gomez de Mello Araujo of Brazil, Dr. Leticia Cristina Correa also of Brazil, Dr. Rafael Suarez Sainz of Uruguay, Dr. D. Clark Werneke of Texas, and Dr. Richard Gramely of Massachusetts. 

According to Dr. Bradley, the three-day symposium along with ongoing archeological work and discovery at Sunrise almost amounts to a dream come true for such innovative research.

As the Colorado professor advocated, even the simplest of discovered artifacts could have a vast and fascinating story to tell the modern society of this day and age.

“One of the things we are always looking at are artifacts,” Bradley noted. “The only things which get preserved are stone artifacts, and we don’t always have a lot of evidence to go by. Archeology is the investigation of the human experience based on physical evidence. It is evidence-based, and we are always looking at things. When we are working in these early sites it can be more about geology than anything else, and it is a real science. Artifacts are what we deal with, and everything we are sitting with here is an artifact. Diagnostic artifacts are objects whose style, form or method manufacture or use indicates its cultural and chronological origin. There are artifacts which are very related to both time and space, and we use a certain way of classification. You think of biology or botonny. How do you classify plants, what they are and how do they grow? It’s by using characteristics.”

“We are looking at grouping things which hold together as a group,” Bradley continued. “The research we do is always question-oriented and questioned based. What do we learn from typology? Lots of different things. Was it functional? How was it used? Did it work? Did it kill bison? Hunt beavers? What was going on with these particular pieces? That’s what archeology is best at doing and we have various methods to determine this, many of them microscopic. What was in their heads? What were they thinking, and how much were they willing to invest beyond function? It gets heavily into beliefs and rituals, as well as ethnicity.”

Dr. Bradley explained how such discovery of ancient artifacts certainly ties into the very way of life modern human beings actually live today. According to Bradley, archeology as well as anthropology does not necessarily always relate to history.

Sometimes it is right before our very eyes, and in the making as we speak.

“The clothes you wear and the styles you wear represent your identity. We are in Goshen County, right? It was named after it was first identified with Goshen Paleoamerican projectile point types from the high plains of Wyoming, which is very aesthetic. We always look at technology. How was it made? What choices were made to create it? It’s like learning a complex tune on the piano. All the steps have to be in order to get exactly what you want. Then what you do is break pieces off and turn pieces into the point. Technology is a process, not a thing. Actually, it’s far more of a behavior.”