Many of us are familiar with the concept of the “Buffalo Jump,” of course, but in all my travels, I had never actually seen the site of one before. After spending a dark and stormy night outside of Rapid City, I decided to duck over to Wyoming to visit Devil’s Tower. It wasn’t long after dawn when I spotted signs on the highway directing me to this noteworthy landmark:
Very thorough explanation, isn’t it? But what, you may be wondering, as I was, does the buffalo jump actually look like? After considerable searching in the early morning light, I finally realized that it lay in an unmarked field just across the road:
That’s one heck of a sinkhole, but it doesn’t seem as though buffalo could become effectively trapped in it, does it? Perhaps not – but it was a sinkhole, after all, that was responsible for creating one of the most spectacular archaeological sites in the world today – Mammoth!
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Lori Schafer's Short Subjects I Feel Like Writing About 
I’d never heard of them either. Interesting – makes a lot of sense.
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Now I had heard of this (from the fount of wisdom in our family, the Archaeologist) but to see one in practice is so cool. I need a copy of your itinerary when you’re done (maybe you’ll tell me, with good reason ‘buy the book buster’!!) so I can hunt out these gem sometime. The bucket list grows….
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This Englishwoman hadn’t heard of the Buffalo jump. Thanks for enlightening me.
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Not quite part of the English folklore, eh? I guess no buffalo = no jump. Thanks for enlightening me! :)
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There’s a similar sinkhole south of Lewiston, ID that folks though was just a small spring-fed lake. Fisherman complained of snags and sometime in the 90s the lake was drained to “clean up” the bottom. Turns out all those snags were a jumble of mammoth bones! Fun to be swapping histories with you as you travel.
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What is it with mammoths and sinkholes? Sheesh!
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