Cottonwood Field Office

Early Idaho Sites

Other Idaho Sites from the Paleoindian Period
The Lower Salmon River is one area of several Paleoindian sites in Idaho.  The following fourteen sites have also shown evidence of the presence of prehistoric Americans. Idaho’s Paleoindian sites include the Buhl Burial Site, where one of the most complete and best preserved Paleoindian skeletons in the Americas was discovered in 1989.                                                                       
(BP)= "Years Before Present”

Site Name
Date(BP)
Location
Discoveries
Bison
and Veratic Rockshelters
10,000
Clark
County
  • Bison bone associated with lanceolate points (comparable to Haskett points)
  • Single “Clovis-like” point fragment
Buhl Burial Site
10,600
Twin Falls County
  • Oldest human skeletal material recovered from Idaho (female)
  • One of best preserved and most complete paleoindian skeletons in the Americas
  • Obsidian stemmed biface
  • Fine bone needle
  • Incised bone artifact
  • Badger bone (baculum used as funerary object)
Haskett Site
10,000-9,000
Power County
  • Lanceolate points
  • Flake knives
  • Haskett Points (similar to Lake Mojave points)
Hatwai Site
10,800
Nez Perce County
  • Windust stemmed and lanceolate points
Hetrick Site
9,000
Washington County
  • Most complete Paleoindian component of any archeological site in western Idaho
  • Contained earliest evidence of salmon use in open site context in Idaho
  • Stemmed Windust projectile points
  • Bone awl/whistle
  • Bison, elk, deer, bighorn sheep, rabbits, fish, waterfowl, mussel
Redfish Overhang
10,000
Custer County
  • Haskett point
  • Two scrapers
  • “Multi-purpose tool”
Simon Clovis Cache
undated
Camas County
  • Largest and best example of Clovis technology in Idaho
  • Five complete Clovis points
  • Clovis preforms
  • Quartz crystal bifaces
Wasden Site (Owl Cave)
10,900-8,000
Bonneville County
  • Three fluted Folsom points
  • Mammoth, bison, camel, dire wolf
  • Mammoth long bones used to produce bone tools

Lower Salmon River

11,410-11,370

Idaho

  • Equipment cache with stemmed points
  • Long record of unfluted point technology
  • Potentially preceeds or is contemporaneous to Clovis

Wilson Butte Cave

10,000-6,000 

Jerome

  • bone and charcoal fragments
  • stone tools, knives, projectile points
  • evidence of hearths, and a mano fragment
 

Lower Salmon River Cultural Resources

Cottonwood Field Office  |  1 Butte Drive  |  Cottonwood, ID 83522
208-962-3245  |  Fax: 208-962-3275  |  Office hours: 7:45am - 4:30pm, M-F