Our students have opportunities unlike many across the university. Each summer, we offer a number of unique experiences that allow them to apply the skills they are learning in the classroom in a real-world setting by taking to the field. Graduate student, Hallie Meeker, participated in a couple of different field opportunities this past summer beginning with her role as junior teaching assistant with Dr. Jason LaBelle’s archaeology field school. Meeker helped by instructing our undergraduate students about different survey methods and excavation techniques, collecting tools, plotting and advanced mapping techniques for more than five weeks before heading further north into Wyoming to wrap up a grant she had written earlier this year.

Meeker, the co-principle investigator on the project at Moriah Ranch, located in Albany County in Wyoming, was part of a 15 person team led by Rich Adams, project archaeologist and adjunct faculty in the Department of Anthropology. The grant, funded by the Wyoming Central Trust Fund (WCTF) funded the survey the 22-square mile property. The team was attempting to gain a better understanding of the many sites located on the ranch, which range from those more than 10,000 years old to middle-arrowhead. They found tee-pee rings, buried sites, a game system and more arrowheads than they have been able to catalog yet.

The grant that Meeker and the team wrote was intended to gauge the potential for future work on the property. Based on the successful ten-day survey, there is plenty of opportunity for research in the years to come. For more information on the Moriah Ranch and Meeker’s work, click here.

Check out our photos from Moriah Ranch!