The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is offering a $10,000 reward for information on who vandalized and looted an archaeological site near Dubois.
Investigators are purposefully not disclosing where the site is or what type of artifacts might have been vandalized. They believe they need to withhold that information to shield the area from unwanted attention or copycats.
Jason Hunter, regional wildlife supervisor for Wyoming Game and Fish’s Lander office, said Monday that he had to be “vague on the description” of the site and what happened there.
He could confirm that the vandalism happened near Wyoming Game and Fish Commission land sometime between late July and Sept. 2.
“We don't want to have further incidents up there,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “We do know the site was vandalized and some artifacts were probably taken.”
While the agency is deliberately withholding information on where and what happened, Hunter hopes they’ve provided enough context clues for people familiar with the archaeological resources in the area, or anyone with information on the incident, to come forward.
The $10,000 reward, provided by an anonymous donor, will be given to anyone “with information that results in a conviction.”
“If folks have heard or know of something going, they're going to know the location we're talking about,” he said. “We're hoping that those folks will come forward with any information, if they have any, about the individuals responsible.”
Sites And Crime Scenes
Bonnie Smith, president of the Wyoming Association of Professional Archaeologists, didn’t know the details about this specific incident but is familiar with archaeological sites in the area.
“It sounds like the Ring Lake area in the Whiskey Basin,” she said. “I heard (from colleagues) that a site had been looted over there, and a bounty was going to be posted.”
There are a few archaeological sites of interest in the Whiskey Basin. Several prehistoric campsites and petroglyph sites have been identified near Torrey Lake, Ring Lake and Trail Lake. The Torrey Lake Petroglyph District stretches across three miles.
“There’s over 170 Shoshonean petroglyphs, all on boulders throughout the area,” Smith said. “They’re all interesting figures in transformation.”
Smith also said there’s a known buffalo jump in the area, a spot where indigenous tribes hunted bison en masse by driving them off a cliff.
Smith could lamentably see how any of these sites would be attractive to vandals and looters. Petroglyphs have been stolen from other Wyoming sites, and there could be an abundance of ancient tools and other artifacts at the buffalo jump.
“They might have been digging out buffalo skulls the buffalo jump,” she said.
Smith also said the laws about the protection of archaeological sites, and punishments for looting and vandalism, "don't have teeth." That reduces the perceived risk and punishment for people prosecuted for these crimes.
"People get away with it all the time," she said. "When they excavated that mammoth out at the at the Buffalo Bill Reservoir, they had to say it was paleontological, because archeological laws don't have teeth."
Pretty, Useless, Lost
Smith said incidents of vandalism and looting at archaeological sites have been on the decline in Wyoming, but any incident is a cause for concern. Casual and serious collectors covet arrowheads and other artifacts found across the Cowboy State's landscapes, but many disregard the scientific context just to acquire a pretty trinket.
“Anytime you take anything from an archeological site, it just becomes an object,” she said. “When you take stuff out of context, you lose the provenance, which means you lose the story.”
When professional archaeologists work a site, they meticulously document every artifact that’s unearthed, so the information about it in-situ context is retained once it enters a museum collection. Vandalism and looting destroy valuable information that cannot be rediscovered.
“I can't tell you how many times I've seen projectile points in private collections that don't mean anything anymore,” she said. “Without that context, it’s just a pretty arrowhead.”
In 1940, a petroglyph was stolen from the Castle Gardens Petroglyph Site near Moneta. The petroglyph was eventually recovered and accessioned into the collection of the Wyoming State Museum, but the chiseled hole where it was removed is glaringly prominent at the site to this day.
Smith hopes there will be some justice from this incident of vandalism, but she was concerned about the extent of the damage done.
“We’ve been getting better about vandalism in Wyoming," she said. "You want to believe that it's getting better, so this is unfortunate."
Hunter said anyone with information on the incident or those responsible can contact him directly at the Wyoming Game and Fish regional office in Lander.
“If we can figure out who did this, we can start looking to get back what was taken,” he said. “Right now, we’re looking for people who might have information, and we’ll go from there.”
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
