Wyoming’s Medicine Wheel, A 7000 Year Old Mystery

Hidden in plain sight, high above the Wyoming wilderness, lies a puzzle that has defied explanation for centuries. An ancient Native American site shrouded in mystery. Who built it? It seems to have astronomical alignments and spiritual significance. There is some debate over its origins.

The Medicine Wheel/Medicine Mountain National Historic Landmark is a medicine wheel located in the Bighorn National Forest, in the U.S. state of Wyoming. The Medicine Wheel at Medicine Mountain is a large stone structure made of local white limestone laid upon a bedrock of limestone.

This is one of many medicine wheels found around North America.

Around 150 medicine wheels are known in Montana, South Dakota, Wyoming, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan.

The Bighorn Medicine Wheel is unique. It is the best-known, and one of the largest and best preserved, on the northern and northwestern Plains. It amazes researchers how it has lasted for so long. It was the first medicine wheel to be mentioned in popular literature and the first to be studied by the professional scientific community.

In the early 1970s, astronomer and solar scientist John Eddy observed star alignments suggesting it might have been used as a seasonal guide.

Climbing up there would not have been just a day trip. That is why the surrounding landscape contains numerous historic and prehistoric sites that include tipi rings, small chipped-stone scatters, buried archeological sites, and a system of prehistoric Indian trails, all superimposed by a century of non-Native use by loggers, ranchers, miners, and recreationalists.

Researchers have dated the wheel to be anywhere from 6,550 years ago. Evidence indicates that the Medicine Mountain area was used by prehistoric Native Americans for nearly 7,000 years.