Mummy Cave

Mummy Cave
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
The cave from a distance
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Location	Along the North Fork of the Shoshone River, east of Yellowstone National Park[1][2]: xii  Park County, Wyoming, United States
Nearest city	Cody, Wyoming
Coordinates	44°27′38.448″N 109°44′9.6″W / 44.46068000°N 109.736000°W / 44.46068000; -109.736000
NRHP reference No.	81000611
Added to NRHP	February 18, 1981[3]

Mummy Cave is a rock shelter and archeological site in Park County, Wyoming, United States, near the eastern entrance to Yellowstone National Park. The site is adjacent to the concurrent U.S. Routes 14/16/20,^[1] on the left bank of the North Fork of the Shoshone River^[2]: xii at an altitude of 6,310 feet (1,920 m) in Shoshone National Forest.^[4]

At its mouth, the cave is approximately 150 feet (46 m) wide, and it extends approximately 40 feet (12 m) into a volcanic cliff above the North Fork.^{[2]: 7, 12} It lies along the left bank of the river,^[1] next to the mouth of a small stream and opposite from the mouth of Blackwater Creek.^[2]: xii The largest known cave along the North Fork, it is believed to have been carved by the river's flow; the reason for its diversion away from the alcove is unknown.^{[2]: 8, 10}

Mummy Cave was occupied between 7280 BC and AD 1580.^[1] Discovered by Cody resident Gene Smith in 1957,^[5] it was first studied in 1962 and excavated by the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. The site includes unusual amounts of perishable materials such as hide, feathers and wood, as well as the buried and mummified remains of an inhabitant, named by researchers "Mummy Joe," and dated to about AD 800.^[1] The cave is notable for the depth of its cultural deposits, extending over 28 feet (8.5 m) in depth, and in particular for the continuity of those deposits. The deposits have been classified into 38 occupation levels that represent at least seasonal use of the site on an annual basis, extending from the Paleoindian period to the late Prehistoric period.^[6]