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Interactive Media
Littleton, Colorado
303.850.9697
Guernsey Exhibit Storyboard
Date: 9/15/16
Version: 2.0
Display 6: Spanish Diggings
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Spanish Diggings
During the late 1800s, settlers discovered
hundreds of excavated pits north of Hartville.
The extensive quarry sites, covering an area
of more than 400 square miles, were
believed to be the work of Spanish
conquistadors prospecting for gold and the
area became known as the Spanish Diggings.
Visuals
The quarry sites captured the attention of
several prominent scientific institutions
including the Bureau of American Ethnology
and the Field Museum of Chicago. Later, the
National Geographic Society and University
of Wyoming joined the research. Early
scientists quickly realized the diggings were
the work of Native Americans acquiring raw
material to make stone tools and not Spanish
conquistadors searching for gold.
Caption: In 1900,
George Dorsey,
Curator of
Anthropology at
the Field
Columbian Museum
(now The Field Museum) in Chicago,
published An Aboriginal Quartzite Quarry in
Eastern Wyoming, one of the earliest
published accounts of Spanish Diggings.
The pits, some excavated to depths of 10 to
30 feet, exposed rock layers containing highquality orthoquartzite that Native Americans
used to make tools and weapons such as
knives, scrapers, arrowheads, and spear
points. Excavating the material was
extremely difficult, requiring the removal of
tons of overburden, and then a process of
heating, cooling, wedging, and prying cracks
in an effort to break apart the rock to expose
the quartzite. Stone wedges, hammerstones,
and bones and antlers were used in the
quarrying process.
Map: Illustrated map
showing the extent of
the Spanish Diggings
excavation sites
Caption:
Hundreds of
excavation pits
are scattered
across Spanish
Diggings
landscape.
Caption: Stone wedge
used by Native Americans
to expose the quartzite.
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Interactive Media
Littleton, Colorado
303.850.9697
Caption: Extensive
excavations
covering entire
hillsides are found
throughout the
area.
The quartzite rich layers of Pre-Cambrian,
Paleozoic, and Mesozoic rocks are part of the
Hartville Uplift, which is a geologic structure
formed during the Laramide Orogeny more
than 70 to 40 million years ago.
Tools and weapons made from the Spanish
Diggings’ orthoquartzite have been found
across Wyoming, throughout the northwest
Plains, and possibly as far east as Ohio.
Scientists believe Native Americans began
quarrying operations as early as the
Paleoindian period, around 10,000 years ago,
and continued mining until sometime after
the first contact with Euro-Americans in the
early 1700s. Thousands of Native American
campsites discovered in this region provide
evidence for extensive Prehistoric use of the
area.
be photographed)
Caption:
Orthoquartzite stone
and point from Spanish
Diggings site
(NOTE: quartzite and
point photo will be
from UW collection – to
The Making of Stone Tools
Step 1: Hard hammer percussion was often
used to remove large flakes of stone during
initial shaping of a core, or large flake. River
cobbles or other dense rocks make good
hammerstones.
Step 2: Soft hammer percussion was used for
more controlled shaping of cores and large
flakes into tools and weapons. Antler, ivory,
or dense wood were used as a soft hammer.
Step 3: Pressure flaking, used for final
shaping and thinning of stone tools, was
accomplished by applying a large amount of
force to the edge of a preform or flake. Antler
tines were the primary material used for
pressure flaking.
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