In 2006, the Jim Gatchell Museum Press (Buffalo) published a writing by Gil Bollinger and Scott Burgan titled “Spanish Explorers in Wyoming,” in which the authors looked at evidence regarding the presence of Spaniards in Wyoming in the 18th century. They employed heavily a collection of Glen Sweem, a Sheridan archaeologist and historian who had spent a good part of his life running down evidence of the presence of Spaniards before 1800.

When, in the late 1990s, I looked at the question of 18th century Spanish presence in Wyoming, I knew Sweem had quite a collection, but not until the Bollinger and Burgan booklet did I realize how extensive it was. Nor did I realize how many Spanish signs have been found all over Wyoming.

Spanish swords, ring bits (for horse’s mouths), coins, saddlery items, iron points for spears or lances, and an arrastra (a mill for pulverizing ores) have all been found in Wyoming. The problem is that none of these items were found in places showing clear Spanish presence. Except for the arrastra (found on Doyle Creek in the Big Horns), which could date from the nineteenth century, all these items may have been transported to Wyoming as trade goods. There are other signs of Spain, however.

The Medicine Lodge Creek Archaeological site contains four figures that seem remarkably similar to Spanish Conquistadors. They are deemed to be some of the last of the Medicine Lodge figures, after 1730. These illustrations may have been created by an Indian from memory, but if so, his memory was uncanny, because the figures seem like a copy of a photograph. More intriguing, and perhaps more significant, are the winter count paintings done by the Brule Sioux.

These paintings represented “what was considered the most significant or memorable event for one year.” Several (1714-1715, 1715-16, 1741-42, 1757-1758) show what seem to be Spanish figures on horses and they correspond to events occurring in the South Dakota – Wyoming area. The figures, though, are not so distinctly Spanish as are the Medicine Lodge figures.

Collections of artifacts have also been found in caves, including ones on Medicine Lodge Creek, near Wyola, Montana, near Buffalo on Poison Creek, and one near Greybull. The caves contained skeletons, flint lock rifles, a bronze mining pick, a rifle identified as a 16th century Harquebus and Spanish armor. All this seems like good information, but, maddeningly, all of the artifacts were sold, lost or misplaced. Another “lost” piece of information are the mission ruins supposedly seen at the bottom of Lake DeSmet when the lake was unusually low. There are still others, though more vague, indications of Spanish presence, but given constraints on the length of this column, I won’t go into them.

Bollinger and Burgan do a good job showing why the various artifacts don’t conclusively show the presence of the Spanish in Wyoming before 1807 and they conclude that they were probably not here. But I disagree with that opinion.

Of all the tantalizing items possibly showing Spanish presence, it seems to me that the Big Trails inscription that I wrote about last week most distinctly shows the presence of Spaniards in Wyoming before 1807. The inscription is undeniably European and undeniably not later than 1784.

The only argument can be whether it is French or Spanish. Now, I know that an enclosed cross (as included in the inscription) was a common symbol used by the Spanish at their sites in the late 18th century. I tried to learn whether such a symbol was used by the French, but was unable to get an opinion from the experts I contacted back in 1998. Until someone shows me that this enclosed cross was also a French symbol used in the 1780s, however, I’m going to stick with a Spanish derivation.

To me, it makes no sense that the Spanish would not have come to Wyoming. They ambitiously explored for minerals all the way around our area. Why would they have not come into Wyoming, especially given the strong incentive of a huge reward if a Spanish subject found the headwaters of the Missouri?

I think artifacts will be discovered in years to come showing conclusively that the Spanish were here long before John Colter wandered through in 1807.

John Davis was raised in Worland, graduating from W. H. S. in 1961. John began practicing law here in 1973 and is mostly retired. He is the author of several books.