A series where we take a #lookback at the stories and history of our community, brought to you by Mick Pryor, Financial Advisor with Edward Jones.
September in Wyoming is Archaeology Awareness Month. Wyoming has both the Wyoming Association of Professional Archaeologists and the Wyoming Archaeological Society, and the Archaeology Fair will be held at the Wyoming Territorial Prison State Historic Site this September 13th. The Office of the Wyoming State Archaeologist has conducted over 3,000 cultural resource investigations since 1973. Every year, they perform on average 60 surveys, five test excavations, and one large scale excavation.
The National Register of Historic Places recognizes properties which are significant to local, state and national history. Fremont County has several sites listed through the registry, one of which includes the Helen Lookingbill Site. In 1968, Helen Lookingbill and her husband Art discovered the site at their hunting camp in the Absaroka Mountains near Dubois. She had belonged to the Archaeological Club and had discovered a few projectile points in the elk footprints from the elk who had passed through their hunting camp. The next year, she showed the points to Dr. George Frison, former Wyoming State Archaeologist. The famous archaeologist and father of Wyoming archaeology noticed unusual qualities about the points and would begin excavating the site in 1972. He found that the site was a stratified open-air prehistoric campsite that had been occupied for many centuries. 
Helen Lookingbill (1913-1994)
It is estimated that the Lookingbill site was reoccupied repeatedly over the course of 12,500 years from the late Paleoindian to the Late Prehistoric. Over 125,000 prehistoric artifacts were obtained, and the site yielded one of the largest samples of Early Plains Archaic side-notched points in the Central Rocky Mountains. This and other high-altitude signs have helped answer questions concerning human occupation during the Pleistocene and late Holocene. The site contains the remains of many animals, and quartzite and chert stone tools.
The use of x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy helped determine four obsidian sources located west and northwest of the site. Such findings help archaeologists get a better understanding of the influences and distribution of obsidian. Research also provided a better understanding of the nature of the site occupation, regional cultural dynamics, and high-altitude hunter-gather adaptations.
Sites in Fremont County include both historic and prehistoric sites. Bison jumps, bighorn sheep traps, petroglyphs and other ancient cultural sites can be found throughout the county at all elevations. More information can be found at the Fremont County Museums in Lander, Riverton and Dubois. The museums work with the state and federal agencies to inform the public, but to also protect these important sites. 