Modeling site location patterns amongst late-prehistoric villages in the Wind River Range, Wyoming

The recent discovery of six high-altitude villages and their noticeably similar microenvironments suggest potential site location patterning in Wyoming's high mountains. This pattern, centered upon abundant Whitebark Pine stands further suggests that initial village locations were targeted specifically for the optimal procurement of pine nuts. Through the GIS analysis of topographical, arboreal, and spatial variables accompanied by two ground-truthing field surveys, this project interpreted potential causalities of the locational pattern amongst these villages and, based on the hypothesized model, successfully predicted the locations of 13 new cut-and-fill lodge villages above 10,000 feet in Wyoming's Wind River Range.