BUFFALO JUMP? Wyoming Tourist Never Knew

After Devils Tower, Wyoming, most tourists drive right past this historic hole in the ground.

The lady in the video below was surprised to find Wyoming's Buffalo Jump.

Why stab your dinner with a spear, which is very dangerous, when you can kill it by making it fall to its death?

The Vore Buffalo Jump is a sinkhole: a natural sinkhole created by acidic water that, rising up from the deep, eats away at layers of gypsum below the surface of the prairie.

It took centuries for the dissolving gypsum to become a cavern. The "roof" then collapsed, and it became a deep hole in the ground.

Watch the video below to watch this tourst learn about a buffalo jump for the first time.

Plains Indians found these holes across the vast and open landscape.

The hole made natural traps for big game if used effectively.

At this site, near the Wyoming, South Dakota border, around 20,000 buffalo and the tools of buffalo harvest: knives, arrowheads, spear points, wolf skulls can be found.

The Vore Site is open from June 1 through Labor Day from 8 am to 6 pm. Due to staffing issues, we will be closed August 11, 13, 18, 22, and 25-28. We will be open Labor Day weekend! Tours are guided. The last tour leaves at 5:15 pm.

The Vore Buffalo Jump is one of the most important archaeological sites of the Late-Prehistoric Plains Indians in the region. Here is a short video that provides more information.

There are many other buffalo jump areas around Wyoming.

If you ever drive through the beautiful bluffs of Chugwater, Wyoming, just imagine bison being run off those high points.

That is how the town got its name.

Indians named the area after the CHUG sound bison made when they hit the ground down by the water of the river below.