Name: Spanish Diggings

County: Niobrara

Authority Name: Spanish Diggings (Wyo.)

GNIS Entry

Longitude:  1045011W

Latitude: 423634N

Legal Description:

Elevation: 5167/1575

(ft/m)

Feature Type: Mine

Origin of Name: 

As we go back into time, into the history of geological and animal formation, the periods of time increase almost beyond comprehension. Twelve thousand years take us back to the late Stone Age when man’s only machinery consisted of sharpened flints, the bow and arrow. The story of Wyoming’s earliest inhabitants is enveloped in a haze of mystery, but explorations have developed that Wyoming has the most ancient remains of vanished race to be found on this continent. In the prehistoric mines there is embedded the hidden chronicle of extinct races.  

These prehistoric quarries are scattered throughout a region of about 400 square miles in Platte and Niobrara counties. This region is about ten miles wide, forty miles long eastward of the North Platte River. The Spanish Diggings is a misnomer. Some say it was given by early explorers, who thought the excavations were made by preceding Spanish expeditions, which were digging for gold. Spanish explorations were made to this part of North America, under Coronado and others in the fifteenth century. The region is indeed an archaeological paradise. Numerous scientific expeditions have been conducted and many ancient artifacts have been studied and displayed in museums. 

Source: Annals 23(2)