Who Built This Ancient Wyoming Rock Wall?

What is this mysterious wall on the western side of the Bighorn Mountain?

It looks like a hand-crafted stone wall built by some ancient civilization.

But look a little closer and you'll see that something is odd about those rocks that make up that wall.

Maybe these are not rocks that were stacked by people.

But how can this be natural?

Wyoming Geologist Miron Cook grew up in this area. He explored it as a boy, many times.

Now, as an older adult, with decades of geological training, he can look at this wall and figure out how it formed.

The way this natural stone wall came to be is nothing like what you would expect.

Here is an oversimplified explanation. Better to watch Miron's video, below.

Just imagine mud, far underground, and under a lot of pressure.

One day the Earth shakes and cracks, allowing that mud to surge up through those cracks to the surface.

Over time the mud in those cracks dries, and then erosion exposes the wall that it made.

Wyoming is so interesting to people like Miron because so much of it is exposed geological history.

This state has been at the bottom of an ocean.

It was once a swamp, with crocodiles.

You can watch Miron's video below.

It's been as sandy as North Africa.

Wyoming has been under a mile of ice.

Today our state is a highplanes desert, with many wonders of the past, like this wall, exposed for us to see and examine.

Looking at features like this helps us learn about the planet's past and the many changes that happened then, and are still happening to this day.