Historic Graffiti in Montana Caves
The Bigfork High School Cave Club has exhaustively documented features in Montana's caves. In this presentation, they walk us through some patterns of graffiti and the fascinating history that can be interpreted from cave walls. Which cave has the most graffiti? Which one has the oldest date? The answers may surprise you.
1 comment
Tim Urbaniak
Greetings to Bigfork High School Cave Club members! I just watched your video about "graffiti"/Historic Inscriptions in western Montana caves. Outstanding work. Your methodology is excellent - certainly kudos to your guiding faculty. We have both limestone and sandstone caves in eastern Montana that have similar content. For background, I have a PhD in Anthropology with extensive research in historic inscriptions on the Northern Plains. Realize when you document this cultural material - and I was glad to hear that you are aware that 'things over 50 years old are protected' - that it is a communication medium representing a cultural extension of petroglyphs and pictographs that date in some cases to many thousands of years ago. These historic inscriptions specifically identify in many cases the exact person placed within their cultural landscape and often represents further information about who they were and how they viewed themselves.
I would never attempt to excuse the 'work' of contemporary people "vandalizing" these places through spray paint, but from an anthropological perspective, even they are representing their culture by their willingness to do what they do. Separating the aesthetic difference is more of a tricky thing.
Again - wonderful work. Cool stuff. If someone from over your way would like to chat more, I would be delighted to assist in any way I can. Cheers!
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