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Petroglyphs and Pictographs: Wyoming's Original
Artwork
Castle Gardens Turtle
 In
the late 1920’s a young ranch boy, J. David Love, took a
special interest in one of Wyoming’s premiere rock art sites.
His study of the site, nestled in a sandstone outcrop with chimerical
shapes reminiscent of turrets and towers, led him to name it Castle
Gardens- then to write the first account of the site as a high
school paper. David Love, who would go on to become one of North
Americas foremost geologists, pioneered efforts to protect Castle
Gardens by writing letters to archaeologists asking that they
visit the site. One of these letters was successful in attracting
University of Denver archaeologist Etienne Renaud to the site
in July of 1931.
Renaud, educated in France where rock art was an integral part
of his studies, was so impressed with Castle Gardens that he returned
on two more occasions to make notes and drawings of the intricate
incised figures that were painted in as many a four distinct colors.
The figure that really caught his attention, though, was the polychrome
painting of a turtle, a carefully engraved design on a fringed
shield figure. Renaud, who christened it the ‘Great Turtle
Shield’, had seen similar shield pictographs and petroglyphs
elsewhere in Wyoming and Colorado. However, he knew of no other
examples that were executed with such realistic detail. Indeed,
Renaud believed the artist had done such an exceptional job that
it was possible to recognize the species, identifying its pointed
head and long tail as that of a snapping turtle.
Several years later, through the interest and efforts of Love
and Renaud, Castle Gardens was scheduled for photographic recording
by the State of Wyoming in a project headed by Ted Sowers. Imagine
the disappointment that Sowers must have felt when he arrived
at Castle Gardens to discover that the Great Turtle shield had
been stolen, leaving only a gaping hole in the rock!
What took place next is not totally clear, but it is known that
ranchers and residents of nearby Riverton, Wyoming came to the
rescue. The word was sent out that whoever stole the Great Turtle
shield had better deliver it to the proper authorities - or he
would be found one day with “both his legs broken!”
With this vigilante threat, it is perhaps no surprise that the
Great Turtle shield was donated to Wyoming State Museum in Cheyenne,
on September 20, 1941.
Today’s archaeologists greatly appreciate their efforts
to save it; the Great Turtle shield has played an important role
in establishing a regional rock art style known as the Castle
Gardens Shield Style (Francis and Loendorf 2002:136). Similar
shield figures are found at a dozen sites in locations from southern
Montana to south central Wyoming. In each case, the distinctive
multicolored shields have very selective attributes: they are
frequently made on prepared surfaces where the artists initially
abraded the sandstone surface into a smooth palette; the designs
are incised into the rock before applying the paint; and multiple
colors are used to paint them - including green, an unusual color
for Montana and Wyoming pictographs. The shields can have the
more complete shield-warrior image, showing the legs and head
of the warrior carrying them, but circular shields without these
are also very common.
Castle Gardens Style shields are reliably dated between AD 1000
and AD 1250. At this point, very early in the Late Prehistoric
Period, the identity of the authors of the shields is not certain.
Archaeologists speculate, however, that migrating Athapaskan–speaking
hunters and gatherers–known today as the Navajo and Apache–are
good candidates for making the shields.
Regardless of their authorship, the surviving shields are a remarkable
testimony to the creativity and the vision of their makers. These
fascinating vestiges of the past–with remnants of colors
that point to their original splendor–give us reason to
ponder and wonder about those who came before us.
Credits
American Rock Art Research Association
Exhibition Catalog
By Lawrence Loendorf, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces,
New Mexico and Sharon Kahin, Lucius Burch Center for Western Tradition,
Dubois, Wyoming. Tracings by Linda Olson, Minot State University,
Minot, North Dakota.
Exhibit supported by:
Wyoming Humanities Council
Wyoming State Museum
Wyoming Bureau of Land Management
Minot State University, Minot, North Dakota
The Lucius Burch Center for Western Tradition
American Rock Art Research Association
Acknowledgments:
With many thanks to Tim Nowak, Mike Bies, Julie Francis and Judy
Bendel for all their help.
References
Culin, Stewart
1901 A Summer Trip among Western Indians: The Wanmaker Expedition.
Bulletin of the Free Museum of Science and Art of the University
of Pennsylvania 3(1-3). Philadelphia.
Francis, Julie and Lawrence Loendorf
2002 Ancient Visions: Petroglyphs and Pictographs of the Wind
River and Bighorn Country, Wyoming and Montana. University of
Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
Kavanagh, T. W.
1996 The Comanches: A History 1706-1875. University of Nebraska
Press, Lincoln and London.
Loendorf, Lawrence
1994 Rock art and the Water Ghost Woman on the Wind River, Wyoming.
Manuscript of paper presented at Shamanism Conference; Witte Museum,
Sand Antonio, Texas.
Vander, Judith
1997 The Shoshone Ghost Dance Religion. University of Illinois
Press, Chicago and Urbana.
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