Museum of Idaho

The Museum of Idaho will rehouse and stabilize the Wasden Collection, which was excavated from the Wasden Site (Owl Cave) between 1965 and 1977 and represents an estimated 15,000 years of Native American occupation on the Snake River Plain. Comprising the collection is evidence of late Pleistocene-early Holocene human occupation and activity in the form of stone and bone tools, pottery sherds, shell, and textile fragments; more than 10,000 bones of large mammals including bison, woolly mammoth, horse, dire wolf, and camel; microfaunal remains; soil samples; original field notes; excavation records; site maps; and excavation photographs. The project will inventory, catalog, and rehouse the entire collection and will stabilize vulnerable materials thereby ensuring their long-term preservation and making the objects and associated information accessible for research and exhibition.