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This geocache is part of the Sundance Geocache Roundup! Stop by the Sundance Museum to pick up a passport and let the fun begin! Or locate the passport at: https://www.sundancewyoming.com/images/Geocache_Brochure_compressed.pdf Find 10 geocaches and earn a custom coin, find 20 and earn a different custom coin! Completed passports can be turned in at the Sundance Museum or you can mail it in to claim your coins!
The cache is a small, tubular canister, partially covered with camouflage duct tape. It contains only a logbook-bring your own writing stick. To find this cache, you can park at the parking area near the Crook County Fairgrounds close to Sundance Pond (N44 24.394’, W104 22.133)or at the pool parking lot (N44 24.230, W104 22.146). It can be accessed from all directions except the East-stay off the golf course!!! The cache has been relocated back to its original spot after construction and settling in of a new football field. The area probably looks different now than it did in historic times due to construction of the park, walking path and etc. ** This cache is located north of the probable location of a Lakota Indian Sun Dance. All Plains Indian tribes revered the sun as sacred. Most tribes held ceremonies related to the sun each summer. The ceremonies, which lasted for several days, involved prayer, sacrifice, dancing, elaborate ritual, vision quests, and, in some tribes, self-torture. These ceremonies are collectively termed the “Sun Dance.” The precise nature of the ceremonies varied from tribe to tribe, but the Sun Dance was held about the time of the summer solstice in late June and was certainly among the most important religious and social events of the year. The goal of these ceremonies was renewal of humans and of the earth and all of its components and continuation or restoration of harmony among them. During the summer, Plains tribes were commonly separated into smaller hunting bands in pursuit of buffalo. However, the Sun Dance was so important that the smaller groups would assemble at a prearranged place to conduct the ceremony and other tribal “business.” The Sun Dance site required water and other resources to support a large number of people and their animals. Beautiful places with inspiring nearby land forms were preferred. Legend has it that, in the early to mid-1800’s, the site now occupied by the town of Sundance, Wyoming, was the location of one or more of the Lakota Sioux Sun Dances. The area certainly meets the criteria for a Sun Dance site…a clear, reliable, perennial stream; excellent camping terrain; wood for fuel, shelter and ceremonial structures; a good view of the solstice sunrise over the Black Hills on the east; protection from the westerly winds; adjacent to a natural transportation corridor; close to excellent buffalo habitat. It’s also a beautiful landscape, including the Bearlodge uplift on the north and several other impressive geologic features. Sundance Mountain, immediately southwest of site, has impressive cliffs of igneous rock that intruded into ancient sediments and was later exposed as erosion created the current topography. The town, established in 1888, was named Sundance, based on the belief that the Indian ceremony had been held here a number of times. Whether the Sun Dance was actually held near this site or not cannot be proven definitively, but it is certain that Indians camped at or near this cache. The area has been disturbed by a century of development, but it is still possible to find evidence such as chips of stone created during the creation of tools and weapons, tipi rings, fire hearths, etc. It takes only a little imagination to picture Indian lodges where the housing neighborhoods, elementary school, golf course and other modern features are now located. The area south of the cache overlooks many likely camping places as well as Sundance Creek and Pond. It’s a lovely view, especially at dawn or dusk. A few years after the town came into being, a young man by the name of Harry Longabaugh was incarcerated in Sundance for horse theft. When Longabaugh was released, he joined the famous outlaw group known as “the Wild Bunch” and participated in a series of bank and train robberies. Because of his dubious association with the new town, Longabaugh became known as “The Sundance Kid.” In the 1970’s a young actor named Robert Redford gained his early fame in his role as the Sundance Kid in the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. As Redford became famous and wealthy, he purchased a property in Utah and created a small ski resort which he named Sundance. Later, he established the Sundance Movie Festival. It’s instructive, as you seek this cache, to remember the sequence of how the name was spread…from the Indian ceremony to the Wyoming town to the outlaw to the movie star, to the resort and film festival.
Additional Hints
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