Castle Gardens, a historic site located in remote Fremont County, Wyoming, has a reputation as being one of the most unusual places in the Wind River and Bighorn Basins.
The strange, twisting Paleocene and Cretaceous sandstone outcroppings are home to thousands of incised images, including the unique Castle Gardens shields.
“Castle Gardens is out in the middle of nowhere, and it's this little isolated hoodoo,” said Wyoming State Archaeologist Spencer Pelton. “It's a very unexpected thing to find because it's just this amazing collection of rock art.”
It’s become more than just art; it’s also evidence of a previously unknown historical fact about some of Wyoming’s early inhabitants.
The oldest of the petroglyphs, known as the Castle Garden Style Shields, are believed to be nearly 1,000 years old, predating the appearance of horses in Wyoming.
Previously, it was believed the Kiowa and Kiowa Apache did not appear in the Rocky Mountain region until the 18th century, but archaeologist Lawrence Loendorf, who has spent years studying the site, has come to the startling realization that the art came from early members of those tribes, centuries earlier than they were previously believed to be in the region.
His team of archaeologists had traced the petroglyphs in 2012, revealing details that had been hidden and uncovering paint that had once covered the shield warriors at Castle Gardens.
By comparing the designs on these shields with designs that James Mooney had recorded from the Kiowa, Loendorf has since concluded that the drawings at Castle Garden were from the Kiowa and their allies, the Crow and Apache.
The newly discovered historical importance only adds to the mystique of Castle Gardens.
“It's just a real magical place,” Loendorf told Cowboy State Daily. “It brings a smile to your face when you go there. There are a lot of Crow Indian drawings and just some really interesting stuff.”
The Kiowa Connection
The artwork at Castle Gardens is not like the Dinwoody petroglyphs prevalent in the Wind River Basin region.
Instead, they are a unique style of petroglyphs left behind by the Kiowa, Apache and Crow, some of which predate the horse.
Last month, Loendorf published his findings of the Kiowa connection to Castle Gardens and another site in Montana called the Valley of The Shields. He was able to make these conclusions using a tracing technique his team revolutionized at Castle Gardens.
It was through the process of tracing the petroglyphs and studying the recorded history of these southern nomadic tribes that the archaeologists were able to determine which tribes had actually left behind the fantastical drawings of shield art.
One motif stood out to Loendorf that showed the link of the rock art to the Kiowa, Crow and Apache.
This drawing was of a bear coming out of a den.
James Mooney, an enthnographer who studied and lived with the Southern Plains Indians in the late 1800s and early 1900s, had recorded the same motif on a Kiowa shield.
Loendorf also found four examples of the same design on a Crow shield. This Kiowa connection is strong, according to the “The Implications of Fremont Pottery in Montana,” published earlier this year by Loendorf and his colleague, Kathleen Rodrigues.
Loendorf believes it was the landmarks that attracted the Kiowa and their allies to the remote desert area rather than a food source. They were meeting with other tribes and Kiowa clans since the region can barely sustain the Rocky Mountain Juniper and limber pine that grow there. Nor is there any nearby water.
“There were possibly 2,000 people out there over the years,” Loendorf said. “It became a meeting place because it's that unique set of rocks that are there.”
The Bureau of Land Management oversees the site and is enthusiastic about the new data pointing toward a Kiowa presence and has begun to reach out to the southern tribes now believed to be associated with Castle Gardens.
“That's what I love that about archaeology,” BLM archaeologist Nicholas Freeland said. “You never know what you can find out.”
Archaeologist Lawrence Loendorf and his team pioneered a new technique of tracing petroglyphs. When they learned that the tape they had been using would damage the rock surface, they engineered this set up using light tripods and tennis balls to hold their tracing paper in place. Loendorf published a book last month explaining the new technique. (Courtesy Lawrence Loendorf) 
Archaeologist Lawrence Loendorf and his team pioneered a new technique of tracing petroglyphs. When they learned that the tape they had been using would damage the rock surface, they engineered this set up using light tripods and tennis balls to hold their tracing paper in place. Loendorf published a book last month explaining the new technique. (Courtesy Lawrence Loendorf) 
The setting at Castle Gardens, a historic site known for its petroglyphs, is extremely dry, with the nearest permanent water several miles away. Yet the sandstone cliffs support stands of limber pine and Rocky Mountain juniper. (Courtesy Catherine Cline) 
One of the most widely recognized things from Castle Gardens, according to “Ancient Visions” by Julie E. Francis and Lawrence Loendorf, is an excellent example of deep-line incised technique. This exceptionally tall figure is 85 cm in height and has slightly curved body sides that led archaeologists in the 1980s to suggest that the human may be wearing a coat covered with nine bear claws, arranged in five horizontal bands. The scale of this figure, its bear claw ornamental coat and the large size of the accompanying deer to its right and antelope to the left, make this panel unique in Northern Plains rock art. (Courtesy Catherine Cline)
The Kiowa Shields
The Kiowa and Apache Kiowa were hunters and gatherers who followed their food source and lived in tipis. They used dogs to haul their belongings from place to place before horses were introduced to the tribe.
They hunted antelope, deer, turkeys, bison and other wild game. Women collected varieties of wild berries and fruit, and processed them with prepared meats to make pemmican.
Kiowa warriors used a combination of traditional and nontraditional weapons, including long lances, bows and arrows, tomahawks, knives and war clubs. They were known for their elaborate shields made from hide stretched over a wooden frame.
These decorative shields were painted and adorned with feathers, furs, claws and various animal parts. They were also the biggest clue about the ancient artists at Castle Gardens.
The size of the shields covering the warriors at Castle Gardens also help date the shield art to pre-horse days.
“You tell which shields were incised on the rock prior to the horse arriving versus after the horse arrives,” Freeland said. “Once warfare became mostly on horseback, it wasn't feasible to have such a big shield.”
At Castle Gardens, Freeland said, you can only see the top of the warrior’s head and his feet. A tip of a lance or spear extends beyond the shield, indicating that the shield was big enough to cover almost the entire body.
Shields like these were used when warfare was on foot. Once horses were introduced in Wyoming around 1650, the shields became smaller so that they would not hit against the horse.
1,000-Year-Old Paintings
To the Kiowa, paint was strongly associated with hunting and wars and used to decorate the medicine shields that were carried into battles or raids.
At Castle Gardens, paint was used extensively on the shields in six known colors: red, purple red, two shades of yellow, white and green. These paints also helped archaeologists date the shield drawings to between AD 1400 and 1500.
The scientists found the tools at the base of the panel that were used in making the drawings. The ancient warriors would smooth the surface in preparation for their drawing before cutting their pictures deep into the rock. The final step was to apply the paint.
“We found little stones that were used to incise the design, and we found the pigments that were being processed,” Loendorf said. “To make some of the paint darker in color, they would take a yellow-colored piece of ochre and heat it.”
This process would make the color almost a deep purple, but it was the charcoal that had been left behind that was exciting to the archaeologists. They were able to radiocarbon date the charcoal, and thus the paintings, to nearly 1,000 years ago.
The Kiowa were shield-warriors and are believed to have drawn these fantastic figures with decorative shields between 1400 and 1500 A.D. at Castle Gardens, a petroglyph site managed by the Bureau of Land Management. (Courtesy Catherine Cline) 
Castle Gardens in remote Fremont County, Wyoming, is located on a prominent and unique outcrop of Paleocene and Cretaceous sandstones in the interior Wind River Basin. (Courtesy Catherine Cline) 
Archaeologist Lawrence Loendorf was able to ascertain that these drawings at Castle Gardens Historic Site in Fremont County were made by Kiowa, Crow and Apache Indians with the oldest dating back to about 1400 A.D., before horses were introduced into Wyoming. (Courtesy Catherine Cline) 
The site contains thousands of incised images, including the hallmark shields of the distinctive Castle Gardens shield style, on the massive sandstone bedrock according to “Ancient Visions” by Julie E. Francis and Lawrence Loendorf. (Courtesy Catherine Cline) 
Although some artifacts occur at the base of panels and sparse occupational debris has been documented in the near vicinity, the imagery at Castle Gardens does not appear to be associated with a major human habitation site, according to Lawrence Loendorf and Julie Francis, archaeologists who have studied the site. (Courtesy Catherine Cline)
Vandalized And Damaged
Unfortunately, the vandalism and destruction at Castle Gardens is extensive.
As early as 1940, the Great Turtle petroglyph was stolen from the site. It was a well-known drawing of a turtle and had been chipped out of the rock. When locals discovered it was missing, it caused a great uproar.
“According to geologist Dave Love, people in Riverton got together and said if the guy who did this doesn't donate it to the state museum, we're going to find him and break his legs,” Loendorf said.
Their threat worked and the turtle was turned in by 1941 and is now at the Wyoming State Museum in Cheyenne.
Today, those wanting to defend and manage the site have had to take measures to do so. The BLM has erected fences so people now must walk into the site, but Freeland believes that these measures are having a positive effect as vandalism has been decreasing in the remote area.
“The BLM has been pretty diligent about putting some signage up to try to disincentivize the vandalism,” Pelton said. “In the last legislative session, we got a law passed that provides some increased protections for rock art on state lands.”
“I think some people don't realize that they're causing harm to the rock art by carving their initials in the rock,” added Freeland. “Sometimes the art can be really subtle, so we definitely ask people not to carve their initials anywhere out there on the rock because they might be unknowingly damaging a petroglyph.”
The damage is not only due to using the rocks as shooting practice or stealing the historic drawings. Archaeologists and enthusiasts trying to document the drawings have damaged the rock art as well.
One example is a Castle Gardens-style shield that was badly damaged by casting residue and another petroglyph that cannot be dated because it was chalked in years ago.
New Techniques To Protect Rock Art
Despite the damage, many petroglyphs still remain intact at the historic site.
Loendorf has worked diligently to record these remaining petroglyphs and is, himself, continuing to learn better ways to preserve the rock art.
In the past, Loendorf has traced the rock art by placing plastic over the top of the panels and using tape to hold the plastic in place.
“We have worked with rock art conservators, and they tell us that the tape is one of the worst things, because it leaves sticky residue on the surface of the rock,” Loendorf said.
As a result of learning this, Loendorf and his team developed a technique where they leaned weighted tripod poles against the plastic instead of tape. A tennis ball on the top further protected the rock and allowed scientists to get their tracings without excess tape damaging the drawings.
He just published a book last month detailing the technique for other archaeologists to use in the field.
As Loendorf continues to uncover the secrets still hiding at Castle Gardens, the BLM is making sure that the public can truly understand the significance of the area.
“Our role is inviting the public to come and appreciate the site,” Freeland said. “We are making sure we're managing it in a way that's respectful.”
B. The “bear coming out” motif was traced by Lawrence Loendorf’s archaeological team at Castle Gardens using a new technique that they had pioneered. The photograph on the left has been enhanced to bring out the color that is then displayed in the tracing on the right. Note the green hole or den from which the two bears are emerging. The left bear has one green and one red eye and green ears. (Courtesy Lawrence Loendorf and Laurie White, Sacred Sites Research) 
A. The “bear coming out” motif on a Crow shield on the left and a Kiowa shield on the right. The motif is found on four known Crow shields. The Kiowa example was made for James Mooney. (Courtesy Lawrence Loendorf and Laurie White, Sacred Sites Research) 
C. Traced replica of Panel 3 at the Castle Gardens site. The shields were made by abrading the sandstone surface until a circular area was totally smooth and in some cases this area was ground into the sandstone as much as a centimeter. The outline and interior parts of the design were then incised into the smoothed area. Paints in three or four colors, including green, were added to the shield. Researchers now believe, based on historical records, that these shields were made by Southern Plains Indians including the Kiowa, Crow and Apache. (Courtesy Lawrence Loendorf and Laurie White, Sacred Sites Research)
Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.
