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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 Copy 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. 1 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. 2