Archaeology

The Wyoming Water Development Office is developing a reservoir on Alkali Creek to reduce late-season irrigation shortages among farmers in the Bighorn Basin and to provide recreational opportunities. This story map celebrates the heritage and use of the Nowood River Watershed, beginning with the watershed’s rich prehistory and Native American inhabitants and carrying into the Historic period through the present, focusing on the development of the Mercer Homestead and the Mercer family’s adaptation of the land to meet their homesteading needs, which has allowed the family to endure there into the 21st century.

SWCA archaeological experts help paint a picture of those who came before us, passionately studying and preserving their cultures and histories. Laci Paul, staff archaeologist out of our Bismarck office digs into her career passions, becoming a parent during the pandemic, and work-life harmony. 

Emily Dickinson's home, built in the early 1800s, is preserved and open to the public as part of the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst, Massachusetts. Interested in building a historic replica of a backyard barn, the museum needed to know its exact location so as not to run utility lines through the original foundation or unintentionally destroy any artifacts during an upcoming maintenance renovation.

“We dig a lot of holes, so it’s fun when we actually dig some things up,” said Chris Donta, Project Manager and Cultural Resources team lead.

Check out this downloadable quick reference.

One summer, nearly 3,000 years ago, monsoon rains caused Rillito Creek in Tucson, Ariz., to overflow its banks and swamp a family’s fields at the confluence of the creek and the Santa Cruz River. As the water receded, a layer of sand was deposited, burying the footprints left by nine adults, two children, and a dog.

For native tribes in the area, the footprints were a missing piece to a puzzle that had been handed down by elders for generations. When members of the Tohono O’odham Nation visited the exposed trackways, several commented that this was the missing proof of all that they had been told – that their people have lived and farmed this basin for thousands of years.