Survey

The historic sites were identified by Patrick Rennie, an archaeologist for the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation for 29 years. He was responding to a request from Riverside Contracting, who was seeking a new location to mine gravel.

The state land is located about a mile north of Emigrant, between the Gallatin and Absaroka mountain ranges, just off Highway 89 overlooking the Yellowstone River. The survey was required under the State Antiquities Act to ensure that any development at the 455-acre parcel would not harm cultural or paleontological resources.

Newly proposed gravel pits have fired up residents in protest across Montana, most recently near Gallatin Gateway, Arlee and Shepherd. Yet in addition to worries about the dust, noise, effects on groundwater and impacts to neighbors’ property values, the Paradise Valley site has raised concerns about the possible impact to cultural resources.

Rocks vs. gravel

In November 2022, Bozeman archaeologist Scott Carpenter informed Rennie there was a line of cairns on the state land, close to where a road would be built to access the proposed gravel pit. Thinking he may have missed the rock formations, Rennie said he asked Carpenter to formally record the features.

“Rennie’s assumption had been that the newly reported cairn alignment was indeed archaeological, or at least 50 years old, and had been missed during his 2018 inventory work,” he wrote in a report dated August 29, 2023. Throughout the report he refers to himself in the third person.

When Carpenter didn’t file a site form officially recording the cairns, Rennie decided to revisit the state land and do the work himself.

“I was probably premature in notifying him before doing an investigation,” Carpenter said, although he added he told Rennie he didn’t think they were archaeologically significant.

“I was hired by PCEC to interpret what is known about that area, not to do a complete survey,” he added.

In a July visit to the state land, Rennie wrote he was “taken aback. The abundant physical evidence suggested a very recent construction date for each” rock pile. He could even see holes in the ground from which some of the rocks had been pulled for stacking.

To substantiate his conclusion, Rennie invited other experts to the site. One of them was Larry Lahren, a well-known Livingston archaeologist. Lahren wrote up his conclusions, headlining his paper: “Fraudulent Creation of Eight Stone Cairns: An Illegal and Unethical Attempt to Monkey Wrench the State of Montana Trust Land Permitting Process.”

Why?

In his report, Rennie called the newly stacked rocks “elitist shenanigans or naïve activities.” He also speculated about why the fake driveline was created, mentioning “juvenile and malicious behavior” as possibilities, as well as children or recreationists stacking the rocks for entertainment.

Lahren saw the situation as an attempt to give a “negative impression regarding the professional qualifications and credibility” of Rennie.

“It impugns his character,” Lahren said, making him look inadequate for not finding a cultural resource.

Rennie said he authored the more recent report to protect himself should someone attempt to accuse him of not doing his job.

“If the subject cairn alignment was constructed with the intention of undermining Rennie’s credibility and derailing a proposed gravel pit using fraudulent archaeology, then the individuals responsible are unethical and reprehensible,” Rennie wrote.

Dismantled

Following his investigation of the site, Rennie dismantled the fake driveline so the rocks do not “confuse” the archaeological record in the Paradise Valley.

“While nothing can be proved as to why the cairn alignment was constructed, hopefully this incident will inspire professional archaeologists to bond together and help each other when recently constructed cultural features are identified that can contribute false data to the archaeological record,” Rennie concluded.

“I’ve seen situations where people have destroyed archaeological finds to delay projects,” Lahren said. “But this is the first time I’ve seen false evidence created. I certainly don’t want to see this as a trend.”

PCEC

The Park County Environmental Council got involved in the gravel pit proposal in June 2022. That’s when the DNRC held a public meeting seeking comment on leasing part of the school trust land for a gravel pit. According to the PCEC’s website, the DNRC “encouraged community members to raise as many issues as possible. Because this is state trust land, they can put additional restrictions on any gravel operations, including limiting hours and prohibiting an asphalt plant.”

Last August, Jesse Logan volunteered to create a story map noting the importance of the state land for recreational value and wildlife habitat, as well as its archaeological significance.

“I think it’s really important to identify this public land as important to people and cultures for hundreds of years,” Logan said. “It adds value.”

The story map also directs people to sign a petition opposing the gravel pit. So far, more than 750 people have signed on.

Lahren called the story map’s reference to rock formations being the remains of prehistoric hunting blinds “gibberish.”

In reviewing the website, Rennie also objected to how the stone features were characterized.

“The archaeological stone features are interpreted in these comments and documents definitively as ‘Archaic’ and possible Paleoindian hunting architecture, even though Rennie outlined several possibilities (in his 2018 report) for what these stone features could represent,” he wrote.

After concerns were expressed, Logan said he revamped the story map.

Max Hjortsberg, conservation director for the PCEC, said his group was troubled by Lahren’s remarks and the two archaeology reports. PCEC has hired Lahren in the past to conduct a similar archaeological review of a proposed gravel pit site south of Emigrant a few years ago.

“I was surprised they would accuse the community of fabricating a prehistoric feature in order to discredit the DNRC and stop any open-cut operation,” Hjortsberg said. “I don’t think anything was done in a nefarious manner.”

Stalled

So far no company has bid to mine gravel at the site.

“If a project proposal is completed and submitted, there will be an opportunity to provide comment through the Montana Department of Environmental Quality and the Montana DNRC MEPA processes at that time,” the DNRC noted on its website.

Rennie said even with the cultural sites, mining could be conducted without disturbing the features. If any features were located in an area to be disturbed, they would have to be surveyed first, he added.

“We document sites to avoid them,” said Cassie Wandersee, DNRC communications director. “It’s important to us, as a department, to avoid disturbing those sites. Very important.”

Wandersee added DNRC promotes leave no trace ethics on state and other public lands.