Wyoming
13,000-Year-Old Animal Bone Needles Unearthed At Mammoth Hunting Base In Wyoming
Nearly 13,000 years ago, long before the Pilgrims arrived, mammoth hunters in North America were crafting eyed bone needles from the skeletal remains of foxes, rabbits, and perhaps even an extinct predator. Archaeologists say the discovery is the first of its kind in identifying the species used for these tools, offering a deeper understanding of the life and culture of the region’s early inhabitants, about whom surprisingly little is known.
The newly discovered artifacts were unearthed at the LaPrele Mammoth site in Wyoming’s Converse County by archeologists from the University of Wyoming. Earlier this year the same team revealed the oldest known bead in the Americas, made of hare bone, at the same site. Now, “Our study is the first to identify the species and likely elements from which Paleoindians produced eyed bone needles,” the researchers write in their new paper.
The team collected 32 needle fragments and analyzed their composition of amino acids to see what animal bones they were carved from. This revealed various species, including red foxes, hares or rabbits, bobcats, mountain lions, lynx, and an extinct species of American cheetah (Miracinonyx trumani).
An eyed needle made from the bone of a red fox found at the LaPrele Mammoth archaeological site in Wyoming’s Converse County.
Image Credit: Todd Surovell
The presence of chipped stone artifacts and the bones of a Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi) indicate the LaPrele site was likely a base used for mammoth hunting, making it one of the only mammoth butchery sites in North America. The mammoth was killed, or perhaps scavenged, for food – and what a meal the 10,000-kilogram (22,000-pound) beast must have been.
The researchers on the latest project speculate that the animals used to make bone needles were not primarily hunted for their meat, but for their fur and bones.
“Our results are a good reminder that foragers use animal products for a wide range of purposes other than subsistence, and that the mere presence of animal bones in an archaeological site need not be indicative of diet,” the researchers write in their paper.
The bone needles provide some hints of how prehistoric Americans fashioned clothes. Since textiles break down quickly and are rarely preserved in the archaeological record, we know very little about the clothing of prehistoric peoples. The researchers say the bone relics are evidence of “pelts sewn into complex garments”.
The LaPrele site was used by humans during the Younger Dryas, a period around 12,900 to 11,700 years ago that was marked by a sudden cooling in the Northern Hemisphere. Clearly, chunky fur coats were a must-have to endure the harsh drop in temperatures.
“Such garments might have looked comparable to those of the Inuit, who sewed furbearer pelts into the fringes of parkas whose base material was typically comprised of ungulate hide and used them for hats and mittens. The cold conditions of the North American Younger Dryas in northerly latitudes likely inspired a greater reliance on such garments, and the sparse Early Paleoindian archaeological record suggests a relative abundance of bone needles and furbearers in Younger Dryas-aged sites relative to periods before and after,” the study authors added.
The new study was published in the journal PLOS ONE.
Wyoming
Measles confirmed in Teton County, Wyoming, as summer crowds flock to parks – East Idaho News
JACKSON, Wyo. (WyoFile) — After confirming a case of measles in an unvaccinated adult in Teton County, Wyoming, health officials are warning the public about possible exposure at locations in Grand Teton National Park and Jackson.
The news comes as summer crowds flood the region with tourists from around the world.
The public may have been exposed between June 17-25 at several locations in Teton County, according to the Wyoming Health Department. They include restaurants in Grand Teton National Park’s Colter Bay Village on June 17-18; a Colter Bay convenience store on June 20 and the Target in Jackson on June 25.
“We are asking people who may have been exposed to watch for measles symptoms for 21 days past the exposure date and consider avoiding crowded public places and high-risk settings such as daycare centers,” State Health Officer Alexia Harrist said in a press release.
Monitoring is especially critical for people who have not been vaccinated with the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine, according to the health department.
It marks Wyoming’s second confirmed case of the highly contagious infection in 2026. Wyoming went 15 years without a confirmed case of measles until last year.
Resurgence
Health officials confirmed Wyoming’s first 2026 case in May. An adult patient in Fremont County who did not have a confirmed vaccination status caught the disease, according to the Wyoming Department of Health.
Measles was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000 — indicating no endemic transmission for 12 months or more. But it re-emerged in recent years primarily due to declining vaccination rates and increased public health skepticism. Those trends spawned during the COVID-19 pandemic and have persisted during the second Trump administration.
The neighboring state of Utah is one of America’s 2026 measles hotspots, with 499 cases reported so far this year.
RELATED | Anguished parents. Doctors in tears. Utah’s long measles outbreak takes a toll
A vaccination rate of 95% is necessary for community immunity to prevent measles outbreaks, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
In 2025, Wyoming’s proportion of kindergarten students who had completed the MMR vaccine was 93.6%, the CDC reports. That rate is higher than Colorado, Utah and Montana for the same year.
However, it’s declined overall since 2012-13, when Wyoming’s kindergarten vaccination rate was above 97%. It fell to 90.2% in 2020-21 before inching back up to the current 93.6%.
A measles case had not been reported in the state since 2010 until July 2025, when the health department confirmed measles in an unvaccinated child from Natrona County. By year’s end, 13 more cases were confirmed. The majority involved unvaccinated children and adults.
Along with being extremely contagious, measles can cause severe complications like pneumonia and brain swelling and can leave lasting impacts on the immune system. One to three out of every 1,000 children who become infected with measles will die from complications, according to the CDC.
RELATED | The US is on the verge of losing its measles elimination status. Here’s why that matters
RELATED | Measles is not the only disease on the rise. Mumps also may be making a comeback
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GILLETTE, Wyo. — As the Aug. 18 primary election approaches, County 17 is introducing candidate questionnaires to help voters make informed decisions at the ballot box.
Every candidate in the primary field was sent the same three questions and given a limit of 500 words, which could be distributed among their answers as they saw fit. To ensure a fair and direct line to the community, all responses are published exactly as submitted, without edits or alterations.
Candidates were asked:
- What are the most crucial challenges your constituents are facing?
- If elected, how will you address these challenges?
- What qualities or qualifications do you possess that have prepared you to meet these challenges?
Questionnaires are being published on a rolling basis online through Aug. 11. They will be accessible via the County 17 Election Tracker.
Scott Smith (R), Wyoming state treasurer
What are the most crucial challenges your constituents are facing?
Everywhere I go many Wyoming citizens are concerned that our government is selling out our state lands to the highest bidder for crony capitalism. Some are concerned about Data Centers, Commercial Wind Generators, or nuclear waste storage. The biggest concern is the resources these outfits are taking, secondly, they are concerned about health issues related to living nearby, and lastly they are concerned with cost associated with these projects being passed onto the taxpayer.
If elected, how will you address these challenges?
One of the things that many people don’t know is that the State Treasurer sits on the State Land and Investment Board. (SLIB) The same issues that concern our citizens are the same reasons that I have decided to run for this office. The SLIB has voted to lease state lands to a hydrogen plant in Converse County that would take eight gallons of our valuable water to produce one gallon of hydrogen jet fuel using wind and solar generation to power the plant. These same elected officials have sold off $100 million of our state lands to the federal government. I believe that some things are not for sale. As Treasurer you can count on me to count the cost and listen to the people in the public testimony. If we are going to accept some of these projects the citizens need to have the benefit, like lower utility costs.
What qualities/qualifications do you possess that have prepared you to meet these challenges?
My bachelor’s degree is in Business Administration with an emphasis in management and marketing. I will be a leader in the state treasurer’s office that creates a positive work environment that will allow our investment team to create higher returns on the people’s money that the state invests. I would like to work with the legislature to use these interest earnings to buy down the people’s property taxes to alleviate part of the burden inflation has caused on the average citizen. My day job, I work as a bookkeeper and work with numbers day in and day out and have corrected some inefficiencies to help small businesses become more profitable. I plan to do that within the state office and make those profits available to the legislature to reduce the tax burden for the people. I have also served in the Wyoming House of Representatives for Goshen County and I have served on the Appropriations Committee and I am familiar with the massive state budget.
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