Facilities Concept

Facilities Concept

Currently, facilities at the Vore Buffalo Jump (VBJ) site are rudimentary. However, the Vore Buffalo Jump Foundation (VBJF) envisions a world-class facility with state-of-the art interpretive and research center at the site. The concept is that excavation will continue and expand in the sinkhole under a permanent structure that will optimize visitor viewing while protecting the archaeological resources from weather and vandalism.

The vision is that the visitor center, research laboratory, and a “living history” tipi village will wrap around the north rim of the sinkhole. The tribes that used the Vore Site lived in buffalo hide tipis or earthlodges or both. Some tribes spent most of the year farming and living in permanent earthlodge villages, but used tipis for seasonal buffalo hunts. Some tribes gave up farming and earthlodges to become year-round bison hunters, especially when horses became available.

The Vore Buffalo Jump Foundation’s concept is to use the Center’s architecture to help tell this cultural story. Working with Dennis Holloway, an architect who specializes in energy-efficient buildings with Native American motif, the VBJF arrived at a design that incorporates both tipis and earthlodges into the Visitor Center. More information on the architect can be found at his site: http://www.dennisrhollowayarchitect.com/html/index.html.

Architect Dennis Holloway created this model of an earth lodge similar to those used by the Hidatsa, Mandan, and Arikara Indians of the Middle Missouri River area. For a time, the Cheyenne also lived in earth lodges. It is not clear whether any of these tribes used the Vore Buffalo Jump when they were living in villages of this type, but the Cheyenne almost certainly used the Vore site when they became full-time bison hunters. The Crows, who branched from the Hidatsa, were also probable Vore site users. If earth lodges are incorporated into the VBJ architecture, they will have an authentic appearance from the outside, but will have thoroughly modern interiors.

These graphic aerial views of the proposed VBJ visitor complex were created by architect Dennis Holloway. The graphic at left shows the Center from the northwest. Visitors will enter at the first of two neo-earthlodges, which will house an information desk, various services, displays and, perhaps a small theater. The second earthlodge will contain state-of-the-art interactive exhibits. The third earthlodge will be a research building, open to the public, but staffed by scientists who will be actively working with artifacts from the VBJ, collecting, and interpreting data.

All three earthlodges will be connected by a flat-roofed building that will feature a viewing gallery and additional exhibits. This connecting building will be bermed and landscaped to look like a natural topographic feature from the outside. Built of realistic looking but durable space age materials, the tipis on the bermed flat roof will extend down into the building. Below the bermed roof, the tipi cones will be cut away to form interesting additional exhibit areas and the portions of the tipis that extend above the berm will form skylights. The graphic at the right (viewed from the southeast) shows that the excavation area will have a permanent cover that will allow visitors close access to the artifacts and archaeological crews. It is hoped that a tipi village can be created that will feature “living history” with representatives of the tribes that used the Vore Site.

A cybermodel of the planned facilities is shown on a panoramic view of the Vore Site. The image was produced by Daniel R. Holloway.