Nicolarsen Talks About Piney Creek Buffalo Jump

On Thursday, November 21, the Clearmont Historical Center hosted a talk by Dave Nicolarsen, Museum Curator at Sheridan College, about the excavation of the Piney Creek Buffalo Jump by Geroge C. Frison, Wyoming archaeologist, near Lake DeSmet. He talked about some of the artifacts found there, and many local residents had displays of the artifacts they have found in the area.

Nicolarsen opened his talk with information about another excavation that Frison did in Southeast Wyoming.

It is the only site in North American where they find Hematite, a red colored iron-ore that the Indians would grind up and use as red paint. Chert is also found near the site, which the Native Americans would use for making arrowheads and other tools. They would mine both minerals at the Sunrise site.

While the Guernsey site is older, the Piney Creek Site is more current, only about 400 years old.

He said there are several buffalo jumps around Northeast Wyoming, the Piney Creek Site, a site north of Sheridan, and the Vore Buffalo Jump near Sundance. At the Vore Jump he said they have found remains of 20,000 bison so far. The Vore Jump was used over many years as a kill site.

The Piney Creek site was discovered by a rancher who was digging a water line and found the old buffalo bones.

Nicolarsen said that judging by the 20 teepee rings found near the site they could estimate the number of people involved in the kill and the butchering of the buffalo.

They found the remains of 200 bison at the site. Each bison would provide 400 pounds of meat for the tribe. They dried much of the meat, mixed it with berries to make pemmican, and ate the meat fresh. They also cached some of the meat for later use.

One slide that came up during the slide show was of a Triceratops, Wyoming’s State Fossil. Nicolarsen explained,

Around 20 people attended the talk. After the event, the Clearmont Historical Group adjourned to Branding Iron Park, where they unveiled the new plaque that was placed near the old jail, which is on the National Registry of Historic Places, but that’s another story.