The Agate Basin Site is a Paleoindian archeological site in

Niobrara County, Wyoming Niobrara County is a county in the U.S. state of Wyoming. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 2,467, making it the least populous county in Wyoming. Its county seat is Lusk. Its eastern boundary abuts the west lines of th ...

. The location was discovered by William H. Spencer of Spencer, Wyoming in 1916, who found well-preserved stone blades and points in Moss Agate Arroyo. In 1941 Spencer mentioned the find to Robert E. Frison, a deputy game warden at

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

, who visited the site and contacted Dr. Frank H.H. Roberts of the Bureau of American Ethnology at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

. Roberts visited the site in 1942, but it would not be until 1959 that a full investigation began by the

University of Wyoming The University of Wyoming (UW) is a public land-grant research university in Laramie, Wyoming. It was founded in March 1886, four years before the territory was admitted as the 44th state, and opened in September 1887. The University of Wyoming ...

on what proved to be a buffalo kill site. Further investigation took place under the direction of Dr. George C. Frison. The site was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1974.

References

Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Wyoming Geography of Niobrara County, Wyoming Paleo-Indian archaeological sites in the United States National Register of Historic Places in Niobrara County, Wyoming {{Wyoming-NRHP-stub