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Sheepeater Cliff

The Sheepeater Cliffs are a series of exposed cliffs made up of columnar basalt in Yellowstone National Park in the United States . The lava was deposited about 200 – 300,000 ye...

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The Sheepeater Cliffs are a series of exposed cliffs made up of columnar basalt in Yellowstone National Park in the United States.

The lava was deposited about 200–300,000 years ago by an extinct volcano which now sits on the opposite side of the Grand Loop Road.[1][2][3] It was later exposed by the Gardner River. The cliffs are noted as a textbook example of a basaltic flow with well defined joints and hexagonal columns. Many of the exposed cliffs are located along a steep inaccessible canyon cut by the Gardner near Bunsen Peak, but some of the cliffs located just off the Grand Loop Road can be reached by car.

The name "Sheepeater Cliffs" was originally applied to the basalt cliffs in the area now called Sheepeater Canyon, the home of Gardner River and the Osprey Falls.[4] In autumn 1879, P.W. Norris descended into the canyon and noted "scattered fire-brands and decaying lodge-poles", evidence that the Native band called the "sheep eaters" (Tukudeka) had recently inhabited the area.[5] This description seems to imply active settlement and that Norris was actively chasing the tribe out of the park.[6][7] Norris described the Sheepeater settlement in the canyon as follows:

[I]t is mainly carpeted with short grass, dotted, fringed, and overhung with small pines, firs and cedars, and, with the subdued and mingled murmur of the rapids and cataracts above and below it and laughing ripple of the gliding stream, is truly an enchanting dell; a wind and storm sheltered refuge for the feeble remnant of a fading race, who, from evident traces, have certainly hidden here since we have occupied the Mammoth Hot Springs in utter ignorance of their proximity, although less than 6 miles distant.[8]

A trail was eventually built along the top of the canyon, and the name "Sheepeater Cliffs" came to also apply to the visible basalt structures near the trailhead. When they were active in the park, the Tukudeka themselves had placed far more cultural value on Obsidian Cliff to the south, where they would make offerings before mining for obsidian as a valuable trade good.[9]

References

  1. ↑ Bennett, Kristeen (2006). Petrogénesis de basaltos del Pleistoceno en el corredor Norris-Mammoth, Parque Nacional de Yellowstone (tesis de maestría). Universidad de Nevada. pág.  55. Figura 29: Espectro de edades para el afloramiento de basalto de Swan Lake en Sheepeaters' Cliff (YSLF-03-01)
  2. ↑ Smith, Eugene; Bennett, Kristeen (2006). "Volcán Panther Creek" (PDF) . Yellowstone Science . 14 (1): 11.
  3. ↑ El volcán Panther Creek que produjo los acantilados fue identificado por primera vez en Bennett, Kristeen; Smith, Eugene (2004). "El volcán Panther Creek: una chimenea basáltica recientemente descubierta en el Parque Nacional de Yellowstone". Resúmenes y programas de la Sociedad Geológica de América . 36 (4).Anteriormente, los acantilados formaban parte del flujo de basalto más extenso de Swan Lake Flat, cuya antigüedad se estima en 500.000 años, como se puede apreciar en la placa conmemorativa dentro del parque.
  4. ↑ "Mapa del Parque Nacional de Yellowstone con la región adyacente de Hoodoo, 1880" . Portal de Historia de Montana .
  5. ↑ Programa de escritores de la Administración de Obras Públicas en el estado de Wyoming (1941). Wyoming: Guía de su historia, carreteras y gente . Oxford University Press. pág. 413. 
  6. ↑ Loendorf, Lawrence L.; Stone, Nancy Medaris (2006). Espíritu de montaña: los indios comedores de ovejas de Yellowstone . Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press. págs. 7–8 . ISBN  0874808677.
  7. ↑ Clayton, John (10 de marzo de 2024). "Desterrando al Tukudika" . Mountain Journal .
  8. ↑ Norris, PW (1879). Informe sobre el Parque Nacional de Yellowstone, al Secretario del Interior, por PW Norris, Superintendente, para el año 1879. Oficina de Imprenta del Gobierno. pág. 11. 
  9. ↑ Nabokov, Peter (2004). Restoring a presence: American Indians and Yellowstone National Park . University of Oklahoma Press. p. 160. ISBN  978-0-8061-3589-2.
  • Las espectaculares columnas de Sheepeater Cliffs en el USGS