The Jones-Miller Site is the largest Paleoindian bison kill site in North America. More than 41,000 bones and 100 projectile point and stone tools from the site were donated to the Museum by Sherry Bennett, the daughter of Robert Jones Jr. The Jones family owns the land near Wray, Colorado, on which this incredible kill site was discovered.
A new exhibit at the Museum explains the story behind the Jones-Miller Site. The bones of 300 individual bison were discovered at the site, a rare find because most sites contain only fragments of isolated bison. Archaeologists have determined that 10,000 years ago the hunters drove the bison into a snow-filled gully, possibly using water to make it especially icy and slippery. The hunters then dropped into the gully and killed and butchered the bison on the spot. They used Hell Gap points, named for the Hell Gap site in Wyoming.
The site was excavated by the Smithsonian Institution in the mid-1970s. The remains of the bison will be stored in Washington, D.C., until the Museum completes the new Rocky Mountain Science Collections Center.
The exhibit about the Jones-Miller Site is located in the Weckbaugh Changing Exhibits Case outside of Crane North American Indian Cultures Hall on Level 2.
