Wyoming college discovers world's highest buffalo jump

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Wyoming college discovers world's highest buffalo jump

Christine Peterson 307-746-3121, [e-mail] Updated 5 hrs ago
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[font size=1]Courtesy of CWC

An archaeological field school from Central Wyoming College surveys the top of a recently discovered bison jump in the Wind River Range. It is the highest recorded bison jump in North America. [/font]

They found the first bit of evidence before they left the parking lot. Flakes of rock and arrowheads littered the ground, easily missed by the casual observer but striking signs of prehistoric life to the trained eye.

Students from Central Wyoming College were buoyed by their finds on the 25-mile trek from a trailhead outside Dubois to the edge of Wyoming’s biggest glaciers. But then, at the top of the state, where harsh winds blow away deep snow and temperatures are often frigid, they discovered something none of them expected: a bison jump. ... More specifically, the highest elevation bison jump ever recorded in North America.

“The conventional wisdom 30 years ago was that Indians didn’t go into the mountains,” said Todd Guenther, a professor of anthropology and history at CWC who helped uncover the jump. “Now Wyoming researchers have documented that yes, indeed, they did go in the mountains and spent a lot of time there and lived a pretty good life.”

The group discovered the jump as part of CWC’s new Interdisciplinary Climate Change Expedition, which takes students into the Wind River Range to study the mountains’ rapidly shrinking glaciers and their relationship with humans past and present. Guenther will discuss their archaeological findings Thursday at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody.

[Coyotl]

1. Highest elevation buffalo jump.

Not the highest jump.

Images of Vore Buffalo Jump, also in Wyoming, in this PowerPoint:
http://www.jqjacobs.net/archaeology/vore_buffalo_jump/vore_buffalo_jump.ppt

[jberryhill]

3. I want a refund for clicking on this story

I thought they had a high-jumping buffalo.

I am very disappointed.

[snooper2]

2. I was wondering how they could figure out how high a dead animal could jump

LOL...


Bison Jump
"a cliff or precipice where native peoples drove the animals to their deaths"

[Beartracks]

4. Fascinating. Here's more info.

That is amazing that all those college students get to have this incredible experience!

There are a number of jump sites across North America.

http://www.amusingplanet.com/2015/06/the-buffalo-jumps-of-north-america.html




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