To begin to prove his theory, he took a group of students back up to Burro Flats in January when weather was cold and harsh. But instead of being covered in feet of powder and ice as some might expect, large portions of the Burro Flats area was blown open.

Springs flowed ice-free from the ground and nearby trees offered plenty of fuel for fires and shelter.

“If you have food put up from the buffalo jump and pine nuts there’s no reason to not stay right there instead of spending all the time and energy packing down into the valley,” he said. “I can’t prove any of this yet. We’re in the very beginning stages of the project.”

Interdisciplinary studies

Guenther and his crew of students plan to keep visiting the bison jump each summer to collect more information and teach students how to complete field work.

They’ve already used the data they’ve found to write papers and present at international high elevation archaeology conferences.