Lookout Cave

In the mid-1960s as a young high school student John Brumley visited Lookout Cave for the first time and knew immediately that the site was exceptional. The cave, located in north central Montana, was initially discovered in 1920 but it wasn’t until 1969 that a field crew from the University of Montana excavated a large portion of the remote site. The materials recovered in that excavation resulted in a substantial collection of more than one thousand items of normally perishable wood, feathers, and sinew. The material was stored in cardboard boxes and paper field collection bags until the year 2000 when Brumley turned his attention to Lookout Cave once again to provide an analysis of the lithic, faunal, and organic material collected from this unique site.

In the absence of moisture and direct sunlight, the interior of the cave created excellent conditions for preservation. This fully illustrated volume features these artifacts and sheds new light on Plains culture and the centuries old use of this well-hidden space.