News – Sheridan Media
On Thursday, November 20, Dave Nicolarsen, curator at the Natural History Museum of Wyoming in Sheridan, presented a talk at the Clearmont Historical Center.
Clearmont Historical Group president Robert Prusak introduced the speaker and added that after the program the CHG would hold an open house to view the new back deck, sidewalk and handicapped ramp.
Nicolarsen talked about the geological time scale.
He talked about the Anzick child, a Clovis burial site in Montana, the earliest burial they have yet found. At the burial site, there were several artifacts which were blanketed with red ocher, and with them the skull of a young boy, also covered with ochre. He said the boy may have been special child to his parents, or maybe the father or grandfather held a high rank in the tribe.
Nicolarsen had several artifacts on display, and he talked passed around bone awls, some arrowheads and some sinew that the tribes used as thread, and for wrapping the arrow heads onto the shafts.
Nicolarsen demonstrated chipping the rocks to make arrows and scrapers, and a variety of materials that they used for the stone tools. He said some of the materials used for arrowheads and tools were chert, also called Knife River Flint, agate, scoria, quantize and obsidian.
One question from the attendees, was, which is older, the Folsom Indians or the Clovis. The Clovis is the older of the two cultures, with the tools being thicker and more crudely made.
After he talked about the Native Americans, Nicolarsen gave a talk on dinosaurs, the Natural History Museum and the quarry outside of Buffalo.
He talked about what they do have found at the quarry.
He passed around a large piece of dinosaur bone, and he had another one on display. He talked about fossil sponges, perhaps even a new species of them, up on the Bighorn Mountains, and some of the other fossils that can be found.
After Nicolarsen talk, the attendees were invited to enjoy snacks and drinks and see the new back deck and handicapped ramp off the back of the Clearmont Historical Center. A good crowd attended the event, and there is an exhibit of fossils at the Historical Center.
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Last modified: November 22, 2025