Wyoming Field School

All students receive the in-state university tuition rate for 6 credits. This year’s field program will be in the following locations:

• Willow Springs, WY (Session 1: June 1^st – 10^th)

Willow Springs is a densely occupied multi-component campsite spanning 12,000 years of Wyoming prehistory. The 2026 investigations will focus on excavating a block over a newly discovered Paleoindian component buried around a meter deep. Students will learn how to excavate, take notes, plot artifacts with survey equipment, identify artifacts, stabilize fragile faunal remains, and other skills necessary to conduct data intensive archaeological block excavation. This effort is being conducted in collaboration with Office of the Wyoming State Archaeologist. Students will stay at the University dorms during this session.

• Old Carbon, WY (Session 2: June 15^th – 24^th)

Old Carbon was one of the first coal mining towns established along the UPRR in Wyoming in 1868. Research questions center on tracing capitalist expansion, global processes of migration and consumption, settler colonialism and frontier ethnogenesis. The 2026 session will focus on a previously unexcavated neighborhood and students will learn skills related to test excavation around structures and historical artifact identification. Students will be camping remotely for this session.

• Cumbres Pass, CO (Session 3: June 29^th – July 8^th)

Cumbres Pass is a high-altitude landscape on the Continental Divide (10,000 ft asl) at the Colorado-New Mexico border. Native American hunter-gatherers used the pass as a migratory route over the San Juan Mountains for nearly 12,000 years. We will be exploring evidence of ancient lithic quarrying practices and stone tool production on Cumbres Pass, with research questions focusing on forager mobility patterns and toolkit gearing-up strategies. Students will learn to apply fine-grained systematic surveys as well as reconnaissance surveys to detect lithic workshops in a high-density lithic landscape. Students will also learn how to formally record new sites using SHPO guidelines and how to assess site eligibility according to the NRHP criteria of significance. Students will be camping remotely for this session.

All students will live in a field camp and must provide their own basic camping gear (tent, sleeping bag, etc.). Please refer to the recommended gear list in the field school syllabus for more information (posted here Spring 2026 semester). The field school provides all kitchen and excavation gear. Participants will assist in regular camp chores (cooking, cleaning up, etc.). The work is physically demanding and takes place regardless of inclement weather (which will include rain, snow and/or freezing temperatures…even in summer). Students should be in good physical shape and prepared to learn while hiking and using gear in high-altitude mountainous terrain under challenging conditions. Students should be prepared to eat and live in remote locations away from town, with limited internet access and cell phone connections.

We teach the field school in three 10-day sessions, each separated by two 4-day intervals. Students are responsible for themselves during those four-day breaks. A 6-credit, 30-day field school is the minimum accepted standard to qualify for entry-level employment on research or Cultural Resource Management (CRM) projects. Credit from the University of Wyoming field school should be transferable to any academic institution and fulfill the field school requirement of any CRM company.

We accept 15 students for the field school and welcome applications from students at any educational level or from any background. We do, however, give preference to those students majoring in anthropology, who seek a career in archaeology, and who have taken at least one archaeology course. The field school is a good place to discover if a career in archaeology is the right place for you.

The Anthropology Department offers multiple archaeological field schools to students with different levels of archaeological expertise, so please explore our other offerings as well.