XX. QUARTZITE QUARRIES, WYOMING 



PASSING over a broad expanse of prairie and plain and ap- 

 proaching the Rocky Mountain higliland, we again encounter 

 traces of ancient activity in the stone-Avorking industry. A 

 laige area in eastern Wyoming, which may extend also into Nebraska 

 and Dakota, bears evidence of extensive operations. The best-known 

 quarries of this region are located eastward of the Platte River in 

 the northern part of what was Laramie (now Platte) County, Wyo., 

 and in adjoining parts of Converse County on the north, and are 

 confined to the exposures of quartzite strata of Lower Cretaceous age. 

 Robert F, Gilder, of Omaha, visited the region in 1906 and on one 

 or more subsequent occasions, and published accounts of the remark- 

 able phenomena of the quarries in tlie Sunday World Herald 

 (Omaha) of September 2, 1906. He prepared a sketch map locating 

 some 20 groups of the ancient diggings, which were originally known 

 locally as Spanish diggings, to which he gave the names of various 

 persons who have taken part in the study of the quarry phenomena 

 here and elsewhere in the United States (fig. 88). The largest of 

 these groups he estimated to cover 40 acres of ground. One of the 

 sites was visited by Dr. George A. Dorsey in 1900, and a number of 

 other persons have made more or less careful observations of the 

 phenomena, among whom are Walter P. Jenney, J. B. Hatcher, 

 ILirlan I. Smith, Stewart Culin, and Neil M. Judd. 



It is interesting to observe that the phenomena of these (juarries 

 and the associated workshops correspond in nearly every respect 

 with those of the more eastern quarries, where kindred forms of 

 material were Avorked by the aborigines. The following brief ac- 

 count of one of the quarry groups is abstracted in large part from 

 the report of Dr. Dorsey.^ This group is located on a rounded 

 eminence in the southern part of Converse County, Here and there 

 over the surface are many pits having a diameter of 20 to 50 feet 

 and a depth of 10 to 30 feet. The walls and bottoms of these excava- 

 tions are covered with flinty refuse which, although artificially broken 

 up, shows little indication of having been otherwise worked by man. 

 Near the base of the hill on the east side is a deep ravine or wash 

 with vertical walls, wdiich affords an exposure of the massive quartz- 

 ite of varieofated hues 30 or more feet in thickness. In the face 



I Dorsey, An Aboriginal Quartaite Quarry in Eastern Wyoming. 

 210 



