Bison Jump

The sign credits horses, and the excavation points the other way. Robert Butler's Idaho State University crew dug below this cliff in 1970 and found the bones of twenty to thirty bison with the points that killed them, from a single drive in the late 1700s or early 1800s. The hunters were probably Lemhi Shoshone with too few horses to run buffalo the mounted way, so a small herd went over the edge instead. Quill Cave and a layer of point-making at the foot of the talus are far older, 1000 BC to AD 900.

What the plaque says

Bison Jump Before settlers came to Idaho in 1860, buffalo used to roam through this valley. Most of them had left here by 1840. After they acquired Spanish horses, eighteenth century Shoshoni buffalo hunters could drive a small herd over a cliff to make their work easier. Directly north of here, an old buffalo jump, used before mining commenced in this region, can be seen clearly. Archaeologists also have found stone weapon factories near it. 434 Text prepared by the Idaho Historical Society Marker made & installed by Idaho Transportation Department

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Borah Peak Earthquake Fault Scarp — 27 mi
  In 1983 the valley floor dropped seven feet in a second, and a truckload of hunters dropped with it.

More markers nearby

• Michel Bourdon — 1.1 mi
• Clayton Smelter — 17 mi
• Mount Borah — 28 mi
• Earthquakes — 28 mi