Stock raising and winter sheep camps in south-central Wyoming (1880–1957): An ethnoarchaeological example

Abstract

Winter sheep camp locations on one ranch in south-central Wyoming are strongly influenced by particular landscape and topographic attributes. A patterned distribution of camps is suggested from both archaeological and ethnohistoric evidence. Sheep camps are one of the most ubiquitous archaeological sites in the region and offer valuable insights into the transhumant settlement pattern of the nineteenth and early twentieth century sheep industry. Our knowledge of this site type owes much to the growth of Cultural Resource Management over the last 40 years. The present study incorporates both participant interviews and Cultural Resource Management archaeology to offer a testable model for site location and content on sheep range in Carbon County, Wyoming.