The past four weeks since my last post have gone by rather quickly. Typically February around these parts is long and grueling with lots of Netflix and scrabble. However, lack of snowy conditions has allowed me to do some fieldwork, fieldwork in the mountains nonetheless! The BLM is authorizing a timber sale in the southern part of our field office and I got to do cultural survey on the 4 or so miles of access road winding through the private surface. The area is a large mid elevation meadow wedged between Gardner Mountain and EK Mountain. A beautiful place where you can see the peaks of the Bighorns to the north and the Red Wall to the south. Unfortunately this is private land with large amounts of “landlocked” BLM lands that the public can never enjoy (unless you have a small helicopter). I really hoped this survey would turn up some interesting artifacts since the foothills of the Bighorn Mountains contain quite a few Paleo-indian (12,000-8,000 B.P) sites. However, not being allowed to stray more than 100ft. from the disturbed road I was surveying did not allow much chance for finding cultural resources. Pretty day, pretty place, too bad no one can enjoy it other than one rancher.

Another bit of fieldwork I did was to check out the condition of historic Bozeman trail (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bozeman_Trail)  signs. It’s always nice to take a drive through portions of the prairie that have had minimal energy development. Most of the signs were in good shape, other than the upgrades made by the local birds.

Except for this one.

This one is just funny. It is beside Crazy Woman Creek south of Buffalo. Almost every business in NE Wyoming is named Crazy Woman…liquors…water….taxidermy..funeral..accountant…drilling…reality..ect. If you can’t read the sign it says “Two legends give rise to the name of Crazy Woman Creek. Both are based on tragic events. In one, a young woman is left alone after an attach on her village. She lived in a squalid wickiup and on moonlit nights could be seen leaping from rock to rock in the creek. The crow Indians felt that she brought good luck and therefore left her alone. The second legend told of a trader who unwisely sold whiskey or “Firewater” to gain favor with the Indians. When it was gone, the Indians demanded more, which he could not supply. After he was killed, his young wife made her escape, only to wander up and down the creek demented. Because of the loss of her sanity, she was safe from further harm by the Indians. It is said JEREMIAH JOHNSON cared for her thereafter.

In case you’re not laughing, there was never a real Jeremiah Johnson. None of the archaeologists still working at the BLM had anything to do with this sign, but it is too bad members of the public (albeit few go here) may read and believe this.

Other than my fieldwork I have been doing some report writing and map making.

– Nathan BLM BFO