Medicine Lodge Creek Information Plaques
7 miles northeast of Hyattville about 2 miles off of Cold Spring Rd.

Nature’s Storehouse
For at least 10,000 years, this area where the Medicine Lodge Creek flows out of the Big Horn Mountains has provided a home for man. From the earliest hunter-gatherers to today’s ranchers, Medicine Lodge is an ideal site for human habitation. Everything man needed is located at or near this site. Fruits, berries, greens and roots from the lush plant growth surrounding the creek bottom provided food, medicine, firewood and material for weapons and building. The abundance of animal life from wood rats to bison were an important part of the native diet. Within a few miles of the site there are excellent sources of high quality quartzite and chert—a rock resembling flint. These materials were used to make projectile points, arrowheads and other weapons and tools. The eastern exposure of the sandstone cliffs creates warm, sunny winter mornings and the slight overhang causes cool, shady summer afternoons at the base of the cliff. Add the constant availability of running water and you have an ideal camping spot that has been used throughout the ages.

Petroglyphs and Pictographs
Rock art at Medicine Lodge and throughout the Big Horn Basin falls into two categories—PETROGLYPHS which were pecked into the sandstone surfaces and PICTOGRAPHS that were painted onto the surfaces. Human-like figures and animals were common motifs. The meaning of rock art is difficult to decipher, but most archaeologists agree that the drawings are symbolic and represent the complex mythological and religious concepts of the artists. The figure illustrated here is located above you on the cliffs and has probably been chalked at some point in time and appears bluish in color. This type of figure petroglyphs appear throughout Wyoming and may symbolize the importance of hunting to the prehistoric economy. Rock art is extremely difficult to date, but art at this particular site is probably no more than 1000 years old.

Petroglyphs and pictographs are a priceless legacy from the Indian people who inhabited this area in years gone by. The elements are gradually dimming these fragile drawings and vandalism such as the carving of initials, painting over the figures and even chalking to make the art visible are leading to their destruction. Please let your foot-prints be the only sign of your visit!

Excavating and Recovery
Beginning in 1973, Medicine Lodge Creek was the scene of one of the most significant archaeological excavations in North America. For 2 years, anthropologists from the University of Wyoming carefully excavated the layers of silt and clay to depths of well over 20 feet below where you are standing. Thousands of artifacts, bones, and seeds were recovered, and cooking and heating hearths, food storage pits, and evidence of these structures were unearthed. These discoveries revealed over 60 cultural levels, documenting the entire history of human occupation in the Big Horn Basin. The information gleaned by the anthropologist along with the geological, chemical, botanical, and related studies are being used to reconstruct the life ways of man and how he adapted to changing environmental conditions from the end of the Ice Age to modern times. Some physical evidence of the remains, such as the rectangular depressions at the base of the cliff which have been backfilled for preservation purposes.

Clues from the Past
Thousands of years ago, while the Indians camped here, the banks of Medicine Lodge Creek were only a few feet away from the base of the cliff. Throughout the years, the creek changed its course and meandered across the width of the valley. Massive rockfalls from the cliffs, such as the one before you, diverted the creek back out into the middle of the valley, thus preserving the silt and clays which held the remains of the campsite of the ancient hunter-gatherers. Only through this accident of geological action has any evidence of human habitation at Medicine Lodge Creek been preserved. From the stratigraphy exposed during the excavations, geologists and archaeologists can interpret the history of the valley. Each layer exposed produced clues that give us information on past environmental conditions and the cultural activities that took place. You can envision the original slope of the valley before it was leveled for corrals and before archaeological excavation began by looking at the undisturbed land adjacent to the rockfall and the line of red earth on the cliff approximately 10 feet above the existing ground level.