A Report on the Medicine Wheel Investigation

Summary

The archaeological investigation of the famed Medicine Wheel was undertaken with some trepidation because of two conditions imposed upon the operation. First, the excavation permit from the Forest Service contained the express restriction that no stones of the structure were to be disturbed. Second, the site had been badly disturbed by souvenir hunters since its discovery in the late 1880s. The extent of this disturbance was crucial in interpreting the results of the investigation, and a complete historical search had to be undertaken. Briefly, the history of the Wheel is this: It was discovered in the 1880s, was visited periodically by hunters, prospectors, stockmen, and parties of dudes for many years. In 1902 the site was visited by S. C. Simms of the Field Museum, who published a short article in the American Anthropologist (1). The visit was rather hurried, and the article was, as a result, inaccurate. In 1917, the Forest Service made a map of the structure, which is referred to as the Stockwell map. In 1922, Dr. George Bird Grinnell visited the site and made a rather detailed report of its general appearance in the American Anthropologist. No excavating was done. When a road was built into the region in 1935, the Forest Service built a fence to protect the site. The road was extended to the actual site during August of 1958 while the investigation was under way. It should be mentioned that the Medicine Wheel is not a wheel, and its relation to “medicine” ceremonies is not known, but the name is well established historically, and will be used here.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Wyoming Archaeologist 2008

Keywords

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Contact(s): Marcia Peterson

Notes

General Note: Reprinted from the Annals of Wyoming

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