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Contact: Gwendolyn Kristy, 307-766-5366; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

 

Wyoming Agency Partners Launch Exhibit Celebrating Rare Bone Needle  

 

 

CHEYENNE, Wyo. –May 21, 2025 – To celebrate Wyoming's rich cultural heritage, the Wyoming Historic Preservation Office and the Wyoming State Museum—both part of the Wyoming Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources (SPCR)—have partnered with the University of Wyoming's Archaeological Repository (UWAR) to create a temporary exhibit titled "Threads through Time: Bone Needles in Wyoming's Archaeological Record." This exhibit highlights an extraordinary archaeological discovery made in eastern Wyoming and will be displayed at the Wyoming State Museum for the following year.

 

 

The exhibit focuses on ancient sewing techniques and artifacts, featuring a fragment of a bone needle recovered from excavations at the La Prele mammoth site near Douglas, Wyoming. University of Wyoming Professor Todd A. Surovell states, "Sewing needles made from bone are among the smallest artifacts found in archaeological sites." The bone needle on display is 12,950 years old, one of North America's oldest known bone needles. The needle has received much attention in the press over the last year and has been featured in publications such as Archaeology Magazine and Smithsonian Magazine. This exhibit will allow members of the public to see this remarkable needle in person.

 

 

The exhibit highlights other tools found in archaeological contexts related to clothing production or sewing, such as bone awls and stone scrapers. While spear points and mammoth hunting are often images conjured when thinking of Wyoming Archaeology, sewing technology was critical to past people's lifeways. Surprisingly, the bone needle fragment on display was not manufactured from an animal we typically think of Native Americans hunting, such as bison. Instead, the needle was made from the bone of a red fox.

 

 

The bone needle is also featured on the 2025 Wyoming Archaeology Awareness Month poster, which is available free of charge and can be picked up at the Wyoming State Museum by the exhibit or from the State Historic Preservation Office in Cheyenne or in Laramie in the Anthropology building located at 12th and Lewis, Room 312. If you wish to have a poster mailed, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for details. 

 

 

For more information about the temporary exhibit, contact Elisabeth DeGrenier, supervisor of exhibits and programs at the Wyoming State Museum, at 307-275-4018 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. You can learn more about Wyoming Archaeology Awareness Month at wyoshpo.wyo.gov.