USA > Wyoming > History of Wyoming, Volume I > Part 3
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Our greatest industrial development for the past ten years has been in the oil fields and the building of refineries resulting from increased production. The industry has increased by leaps and bounds as will be shown in another chapter of this work. It is enough to say here that the value of the oil production in 1917 placed at $50.000,000 will be enormously increased with future develop- ment. The number of producing wells completed is given at four hundred and seventy-five and the number of wells now drilling is estimated at five hundred and fifty. The number of proven fields in the state is twenty-three. This will give some idea of what is only a beginning, as it is now believed by many geolo- gists that Wyoming has the largest producing oil territory of any similar area in the world.
EDUCATIONAL
In concluding this general review of the state, a feature important to its future welfare and the character of its citizenship, is its educational advantages. In this respect Wyoming takes high rank and with its splendid financial endow- ment promises to surpass most of the states of our land.
The public schools have a permanent endowment of three million acres of land which cannot be sold in tracts, for less than ten dollars per acre, or a total value of thirty million dollars. Some of this land may not be worth ten dollars
From the Herbert Coffeen Conta Lon
"THE CLUB SANDWICH" ON ROCK CREEK, JOHNSON COUNTY, "H. F. BAR RANCH"
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HISTORY OF WYOMING
per acre, but on the other hand some sections having proved to be oil lands, is worth from five hundred to one thousand dollars per acre. This is leased by the state and a royalty on the production goes into the school fund and together with the receipts from sales of land and grazing leases, is made a permanent fund for all future time to be used exclusively for the maintenance of the public schools. At the present time the amount derived from these lands is about fifty thousand dollars per month or six hundred thousand dollars per annum. This income will soon reach one million dollars a year and may go far beyond that, and Wyoming will have the richest endowment of its schools, per capita of any state in the Union, and no citizen of the state will be compelled to pay a school tax. A public school system can be established that will include normal train- ing, manual training, mechanical and art schools and night schools, so that every child in the state may obtain without cost a liberal education. Already the public spirit, liberality and intelligence of Wyoming's electorate has established an educational system based upon the most advanced ideas. Education is made compulsory, free text books are furnished, hygenic rules requiring physical ex- amination are required, human treatment of animals must be taught, etc. Wyo- ming was the first state to adopt and introduce the Steever system of military training, and the legislature voted the necessary appropriations to equip the cadets.
The constitution of Wyoming has an intelligence qualification requiring that every voter shall be able to read the Constitution in the English language. The very first legislature of the state passed an act giving woman teachers the same pay as men for the same kind of service.
So it is, Wyoming, unsurpassed in the splendid opportunities it offers the industrial worker, the farmer and the capitalist, presents still greater attrac- tions to the boys and girls, the ambitious youth of the nation, who prize an edu- cation above material wealth, and are proud to become citizens of this great state.
CHAPTER II
WYOMING'S PRE-HISTORIC RACES
RECENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES-SCIENTIFIC EXPLORATIONS-ANCIENT AB- ORIGINAL QUARRIES-THE SO-CALLED "SPANISH DIGGINS"-ANCIENT SYSTEM OF MINING-DESCRIPTION OF STONE IMPLEMENTS-SHOP AND VILLAGE SITES- LATER QUARRIES FOUND SHOULD BE A NATIONAL PARK-THEORIES OF THE ANTIQUITY OF THE SPECIMENS-CAVE DWELLINGS-THE MEDICINE WHEELS IN THE BIG HORN MOUNTAINS-DISCOVERIES IN BRIDGER BASIN-STORY OF TILE PREHISTORIC ANIMALS AND THE GREAT FOSSIL FIELDS OF WYOMING.
The story of Wyoming's earliest inhabitants is enveloped in a haze of mys- tery and obscurity, but recent explorations have developed the fact that this state has the most ancient remains of vanished races to be found on this con- tinent. In the pre-historic mines of this state there is embedded the hidden chronicles of extinct races-the story of the stone age and the cave man, of the buried, untold history of the primitive, rude and savage life of the childhood of the world.
Dr. Harlem I. Smith, a noted archaeologist, after his explorations in this state, described the plains and foot hills of Wyoming as "Darkest Archaeological America." Mr. C. H. Robinson, one of the most recent explorers of the Aborig- inal Quarries north of Hartville, says the region he investigated is, "An Archae- ological Wonderland."
The oldest students of Ethnology have been so mystified and puzzled by the unique, remarkable and extensive stone quarries and village sites found in this state that they hesitate to give any opinions as to the period of their settlement and active operation. Dr. George A. Dorsey says, "There are here many prob- lems unsolved but well worthy of solution." All evidences point to their existence before the period of the mound builders or the cliff dwellers.
In addition to the remains of the stone workers there have been recently discovered in Wyoming the medicine wheels and cave dwellings, the latter being found in the vicinity of the quarries. The medicine wheels are found on the tops of mountains of the Big Horn range.
ANCIENT ABORIGINAL QUARRIES
The editor of this volume was the first to give to the world an account of the ancient aboriginal quarries discovered about thirty miles north of Hartville, where he was then engaged in mining operations. This was in 1892, and after a visit to the locality he wrote to the San Francisco Examiner and St. Louis Repub-
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lic a description of his trip and what he saw. Up to this time the working had been known to cowboys as "The Spanish Diggins."
In 1899 he made a second visit to the quarries accompanied by his son, Sydney E. Bartlett and Judge Sydney E. Eastman of Chicago. Judge Eastman took the specimens of stone work he collected to Chicago and submitted them to Dr. George A. Dorsey, Curator of the Department of Anthropology of the Field Columbian Museum. Dr. George A. Dorsey was so much interested in the find, he wrote requesting me to arrange an expedition for him to the locality and I arranged with Mr. William Lauk and W. L. Stein of Whalen Canyon (near Guernsey), two experienced miners and prospectors who knew the country thoroughly, to supply the teams and equipment and accompany the party as guides.
This was the first scientific expedition to the quarries and shop sites. Doctor Dorsey's report of this investigation appears in the Anthropological series of the Columbian Museum of December, 1900, with photographic illustrations showing the pits, quartzite workings, excavations and about fifty examples of stone im- plements.
Since that time many explorations have been made by archaeologists repre- senting various museums, colleges and scientific societies of this country and Canada.
OTHER EXPEDITIONS
Among other expeditions to these fields may be mentioned the following :
Dr. Harlem I. Smith of the Canadian Geological Survey-two trips-one in 1910 and one in 1914. These resulted in his issuing a publication entitled, "An Unknown Field in American Archaeology" and another work on "Cave Explora- tions in Eastern Wyoming."
Amherst College sent two expeditions under Professor Loomis in 1907 and 1908. These were research expeditions of students on vacation.
Dr. Erwin H. Barbour, at the head of the Department of Geology of the Uni- versity of Nebraska, visited the locality in 1905.
Dr. M. H. Everett of Lincoln, Nebraska, accompanied Dr. Barbour on this trip and became so interested he made two more trips.
Professor Richard Lull of the Yale College Department of Geology made an investigation of the field in 1903.
R. F. Gilder, of the Omaha World-Herald, has been a most enthusiastic inves- tigator of Wyoming's ancient remains, and has made many visits to the aboriginal quarries since 1905, and has written interesting reports of same in the "Records of the Past" magazine appearing in the issues of August, 1908, and February, 1909. Probably Mr. Gilder has spent more time in exploring these workings than any other person.
C. H. Robinson, of Bloomington, Ill., an earnest student of Ethnology, repre- senting the Illinois State Museum and the McLean County Historical Society, visited the field in August, 1915, and has written a valuable bulletin descriptive of his experiences and discoveries.
In 1915 the Smithsonian Institution sent a party of scientists to investigate the field with a view of establishing a National Park. This expedition was under-
UPPER QUARTZITE STRATUM SHOWING JASPER NODULES Dr. George A. Dorsey, curator Field Columbian Museum, Chicago.
Vol. 1-3
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HISTORY OF WYOMING
taken upon representations made by the writer and United States Senator Ken- drick, who was then governor of Wyoming. Its report was favorable and will be more fully explained in this chapter. In addition to these expeditions in the in- terests of science, hundreds of tourists, curiosity seekers and hunters have made trips to the region and have carried away thousands of stone implements of varied character, comprising war, hunting, domestic and agricultural tools.
THE SO-CALLED "SPANISH DIGGINS"
The names "Mexican Mines" and "Spanish Diggins," were first applied to these workings by the cowboys who rode the range. The ancient village sites, shop sites and quarries are located over an area of ten by forty miles, extending from a point south of Manville to Bulls Bend on the north Platte River. Not all of this ground is taken up with workings, of course, but in all this region of four hundred square miles, the visitor is seldom out of sight of some village site or quarry. C. H. Robinson, who spent several weeks in the region says he traveled over six hundred miles on foot and horseback, and collected for Illinois State Museum four hundred and fifty-five specimens of rock work and for the McLean County Historical Society two hundred and eighty-eight specimens. This will give one some idea of the extent of these remains.
Mr. Gilder says, "In no section of the entire world can be found ancient quarries of such magnitude." There must have been a dense population and thousands of workers in active employment in these fields for at least half a century.
TOPOGRAPHY AND SCENERY
A description of the quarries first discovered (there were many others found later) was given by Mr. Bartlett in his correspondence in 1892, as follows:
"The region is intensely weird and picturesque. The surrounding country is broken into a series of rugged hills, interspersed with rocky and sandy gulches, with stretches of mesas and desert plains to the south. Much of the area resem- bles the bad lands in its loneliness and its grotesque rock formations. From the top of the mesa where the principal workings are found, the scene though wild and desolate was magnificent. The Laramie range loomed up in the west against a clear sky, the table lands and foot hills between showing picturesque, rocky formations rising abruptly, clean cut and distinct, like castle towers and fortifications, but everywhere around us was an oppressive silence and desolation, as if we had invaded the burial ground of a long departed race."
The locality of the first discoveries is along the Dry Muddy. The country is so dry that live stock cannot range there. From the dry creek there arises a series of cliffs of sandstone and quartzite, and along the top of these cliffs in their broken and irregular formations stretching away for some miles are found the quarry workings, consisting of pits, tunnels, open cuts and immense bodies of rock dumps created by the mining operations. Beyond the workings and broken ledges at the top of the cliff a flat mesa-like formation extends south- wardly and here the village and shop sites are located.
1698216
"SPANISH DIGGINS," 1915 Vase 14 inches high, 10 inches in diameter. 7 inches at top.
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HISTORY OF WYOMING
THEIR SYSTEM OF MINING
The mining operations carried on in great magnitude among these rocks seem to have been on a peculiar stratum of quartzite lying in sandstone. This quartzite was selected undoubtedly on account of its conchoidal fracture which gave sharp edges, and the ease with which it could be shaped and worked. In order to reach the vein of quartzite the overlying strata of other kinds of rock had to be mined and removed. It is a curious fact that all this rock mining was done with rock tools, such as wedges and heavy hammers. In some instances the wedges were found set in the rock seams ready to be driven, and this seems to bear out Doctor Dorsey's theory that the region was suddenly abandoned either from attacks from enemy tribes or from some cataclysm of nature.
Nowhere is there any evidence that metal tools were used in either mining or for domestic purposes. As to their manner of working, Doctor Dorsey says, "At one place on the bank near the ravine I found a great slab which evidently served as a seat for some workingman. Seating myself upon it, I could readily make out the grooves in front of the seat where had rested the legs and feet, while on the right were two hammer-stones of different sizes, and all about were chips, refuse, and many rejected and partially roughed-out implements."
Evidently their mining work was a slow, tedious and laborious process and very crude, requiring hundreds of workers to accomplish what two or three men could easily do today. Much of the work was done in pits from twenty-five to thirty feet in diameter and from ten to thirty feet deep. There were some tun- nels and many open cuts of large extent. Everywhere were huge dumps of broken rock which had been worked out and worked over. In most cases the pits were nearly filled up with accumulation of soil and debris and trees and shrubbery were growing from them.
THE ROCK IMPLEMENTS FOUND
The implements manufactured were for war, domestic and agricultural uses. In the opinion of experts the agricultural tools predominated.
A general summary of the specimens found includes arrow and lance heads, knives, hide scrapers, hammers, axes, hoes, grinding mills, wedges, mauls and various leaf-shaped implements.
The heavy hammers or grooved mauls were usually of dense hard granite, but all the other output of the quarries was of the peculiar quartzite here excavated, so peculiar in fact that when in the surrounding country or in the neighboring states of Nebraska and Oklahoma, the tools can be easily recognized as coming from the Wyoming quarries-the character of the rock at once establishing a trade mark.
Tons of cores left just in the beginning of being shaped are found round the pits and shop sites. As to other rock manufactures, R. F. Gilder says : "Strange stone figures of immense proportions representing human beings and thousands of stone cairns are strewn over the landscape for many miles."
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SHOP AND VILLAGE SITES
Back on the mesa in close proximity to the workings are extensive village sites, marked by hundreds of tepee or lodge circles made by stones used to keep the poles in place that were covered with skins of animals or brush, and these were the habitations of this primitive race. Many of such villages are located forty or fifty miles away in pleasant valleys and parks where there were springs or running streams. Nearly all of these villages were also shop sites as is demon- strated by large accumulations of chips and rejects showing that they were simply adjuncts of the quarry mining.
In these villages and work shops scattered over a region of probably five hundred square miles there are found many specimens of workmanship not made from the quarry blocks. Arrow and lance heads and hide scrapers are found beautifully fashioned from brilliantly colored agates, jasper and chalcedony. All colors are represented, white, blue, red, yellow, black and banded. They are mostly small and the work on these is so superior to that at the quarries that some are inclined to think they may be classed as the product of the modern Indians who occupied the country after the quarry races had passed away.
The Indians of today have no knowledge, theory or traditions concerning these remains. They have no knowledge of the system of mining these huge quarries, and never made an effort to perform such laborious tasks.
OTHER GREAT QUARRIES
The above description applies to the first discovered aboriginal quarries loca- ted on the Dry Muddy. Recent explorations have brought to light other exten- sive workings, the most important being in the vicinity of Saw Mill Canyon, near the North Platte River, fifteen or twenty miles southeast of the Muddy workings in Converse and Niobrara counties.
Dr. Harlem I. Smith in an article published in the Archaeological Bulletin of April, 1914, says: "On my last trip we discovered many miles south of the 'Spanish Diggins' proper, another quarry district. The exact location of this cannot be made known at this time. Near these quarries are shop sites covering many acres where chips and cones are in such abundance as to stagger one's belief. Most of the material is black and yellow jasper and fine grained moss agate."
Mr. Gilder refers to this same locality probably when he says: "Another quarry territory discovered on one of my trips never explored is so difficult of access that I hardly know how to tell just where it is, but if you follow the canyon on the east bank of the Platte until west of the Saw Mill Canyon, you would reach a section so prolific in material, so tremendous in scale of work performed that you would never want to see another such district I am sure."
Thus it will be seen that the exploration of this wonderful region which links us to remote ages, has only just begun. The experts, scientists and curi- osity hunters who have roamed over this area of some four hundred square miles have only seen surface indications and picked up such specimens as lay before the naked eye. There has been no systematic plan of exploration and no excava-
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tion of the pits to uncover the hidden relics of the race that worked and dreamed and passed "life's fitful fever" in these desolate wilds.
SHOULD BE A NATIONAL PARK
In May, 1905, the writer addressed a letter to W. A. Richards, commissioner of the general land office, Washington, D. C., requesting the survey and with- drawal of these lands for the protection of pre-historic remains. Mr. Richards took up the matter with the United States Bureau of Ethnology which favored the project. The area however was so large, and so many private land titles were involved that action was deferred. The commissioner, however, said that if we could give him a description by survey of the section or sections upon which the principal quarries were found, he would recommend the reservation. At that time .it was impossible to furnish that information and the national govern- ment had no surveyors in the field in this state.
In the summer of 1914 I again took up the matter and succeeded in getting Governor Kendrick interested in the park or monument reserve. He gave me a strong letter to Secretary Lane, which I presented in person. The matter was referred to the Ethnological Department of the Smithsonian Institution and it was agreed to send out a party to survey and investigate the fields. Dr. Grace Raymond Hebard of the University of Wyoming took a deep interest in the plan and urged such reservation in letters to the Smithsonian people.
Owing to the great extent of the region involved, 400 to 600 square miles, it was deemed impracticable to reserve it all, but it was agreed to reserve the most important of the "diggins" for scientific research. This will undoubtedly be done. The next spring following the examination made by the Smithsonian Institution the government practically took charge of the principal workings and required all visitors who desired to take away specimens, to secure a permit from the Interior Department.
THEORIES AND OPINIONS
The writer has visited ancient remains in New Mexico and Arizona and. while as objects they are picturesque and interesting, they cannot compare in impressiveness, weirdness and mystery to the Wyoming remains which are to be found on the American Continent. Personally I am strongly of the opinion that they belong to the stone age, for various reasons. The rock work was done with rock, they had no metal tools nor any domestic utensils except of rock manu- facture, they had no dwellings that show any signs of architectural skill, and nowhere can be found any foundations of buildings except the crude stone cir- cles that marked the skin covered tepees.
Mr. Robinson, who has made a thorough study of the Mound Builders, says : "The specimens of stone tools, implements, etc., are the same as found in the mounds of the Mississippi Valley credited to the handicraft of the Mound Builders. The theory is thus advanced that these quarries may have been the site of the workshops of the pre-historic men who roamed over the land ages before the American Indian made his appearance. Here they made their uten- sils and implements of war and the chase to be later carried down the Platte to
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HISTORY OF WYOMING
the Missouri and Mississippi to be left in Illinois and the various states bordering on these streams."
Dr. F. B. Loomis of Amherst College wrote in June, 1915, as follows: "I have in the Amherst Collections several implements from Arkansas and other nearer localities made from material which doubtless came from these quarries, so they must have been visited by tribes far and near, or at least the material must have been traded widely. I know of no other place where the quarrying of rock for making stone implements was carried on to anywhere near as large an extent."
INDIAN SITES AND CAVE DWELLINGS
Robert F. Gilder in an article contributed to the "Records of the Past," Au- gust, 1908, gives an account of the Indian sites of Whalen Canyon. The loca- tion of this canyon, or rather valley, is a few miles east of Sunrise and winds in a southerly direction to the North Platte River through the Black Hills of Wyo- ming. It has always been a favorite resort of the wild tribes on account of the fine grazing, the mountain springs, that feed a small stream which flows along the base of the eastern range of hills, and the great bodies of red hematite iron ore, which the Indians used as a pigment to decorate themselves, and their domes- tic implements. Especially on war trips they made lavish use of the paint ores.
From the north end of this valley where it is abruptly closed in by hills with nothing but a wagon road out to the plain, it extends some fifteen miles to the river with hills rising on either side giving ample protection from winds and storms to those who made it their home. It was selected by the Indians as an ideal camping ground and for five or six miles at the base of the eastern range of hills they may be traced by the tepee beds of numerous Indian villages.
It was near here that Mr. Parkman the historian, spent nearly a year living with the Indians and studying their manners and customs which are so graphic- ally described in his book "The Oregon Trail." Among the hills at the north end of the valley was the scene of conflicts among the Indian tribes and one battle ground is marked by an extensive burial ground.
Around the stone circles where their lodges were erected are found abundant collections of beautifully colored stones of agate, chalcedony and jasper, which they used in the manufacture of arrow, lance heads and hide scrapers, most of the implements being made for war and hunting purposes. These were un- donbtedly the work of the modern Indian tribes and have no relation to the pre-historic workings of the so-called "Spanish Diggins," as the former used different stones and produced much more finished specimens of handiwork. Oc- casionally there is found stone axes and hammers that were evidently brought from the ancient workings on the Muddy.
THE CAVE DWELLINGS
At the northern end of the valley among the western hills there is a gorge hemmed in by limestone cliffs in which natural caves are found that evidence shows were once inhabited by human beings. On the lower part of these cliffs there are a dozen or more large and small caverns which were first explored by
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HISTORY OF WYOMING
J. L. Stein, a miner and prospector whose home was in Whalen Valley. His researches showed that the walls were smoke stained and charcoal embers were found where fires had been made, and in the debris on the floor of the caves were found flint chippings showing that work had been done by the dwellers, either during storms or when hiding from tribes on the war path.
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