The Mystery of the Big Horn Medicine Wheel
Its Reality Speaks of a Culture Long Gone, Lost to Time, Attuned to the Stars

BY PAT HILL

Located high in the Bighorn Mountains of Northern Wyoming, the centuries-old Medicine Wheel, as it is known today, seems to be a testament to astronomical applications used by people who lived in the Northern Plains long before white men came on the scene, or even the Crow Indians, but the structure remains as mysterious as Britain's Stonehenge.

The Bighorn Medicine Wheel sits at nearly 10,000 feet above sea level near the summit of Medicine Mountain, on a ridge offering incredible vistas. The Wheel can typically only be reached by human visitors during the warm summer months. Constructed of stones gathered in the vicinity of the landmark, the Medicine Wheel has a diameter of 80 feet (245 feet in circumference), with stones piled inside to form a central, donut-shaped cairn about 12 feet in diameter and two feet high. Twenty eight stone “spokes” connect the central cairn to the outside circle, and around the circle lie six other stone cairns, some large enough for a person to sit in. READ MORE

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