On June 21st of 2012, I visited the Medicine Wheel Mountain near the Wyoming/Montana border. It was/is located between Sheridan and Lovell, Wyoming on Wyoming Highway 14A. There was a designated parking area at the beginning of the trail to “The Medicine Wheel”. It was necessary to walk about 2 km from the parking area to the Medicine Wheel Historic Landmark.

     The Medicine Wheel/Medicine Mountain National Historic Landmark  is a medicine wheel located in the Bighorn National Forest, in the U.S. state of Wyoming. The Medicine Wheel at Medicine Mountain is a large stone structure made of local white limestone laid upon a bedrock of limestone. It is both a place of sacred ceremony and scientific inquiry.  It is one of many found in the Rocky Mountains of Northern America. The Medicine Wheel and Medicine Mountain reflect 10,000 years of Native American culture. The site is sacred and revered by the Native American people. It is important that the Medicine Wheel be treated with the utmost respect given any holy place.

     The structure is located at an altitude of  2939 m, near the summit of Medicine Mountain. It is a pre-columbian structure, built from roughly loaf-sized stones gathered from the surrounding area. The structure consists of a circular rim, 24 m  in diameter, 28 spokes extending from the rim to the center, and a series of seven stone circles (cairns). Cairn O is at the center of the structure and is about 3 m in diameter. Cairns A – F are at or near the rim, and are considerably smaller.  The wheel has 28 spokes, the same number used in the roofs of ceremonial buildings such as the Lakota Sundance lodge. These always includes an entrance to the east, facing the rising Sun, and include 28 rafters for the 28 days in the lunar cycle. The number 28 is sacred to some of the Indian tribes because of its significance as the lunar month. In Bighorn’s case, could the special number 28 also refer to the helicial or dawn rising of Rigel 28 days past the Solstice, and Sirius another 28 past that.

     Medicine Wheel was constructed by Plains Indians between 300-800 years ago, and has been used and maintained by various groups since then.  The star alignments are most accurate for around 1200 AD, since slight changes in the Earth’s orbit have caused perturbations since. The solstice alignments remain accurate today.

      In 1974, an archaeoastronomer named Jack Eddy visited this Medicine Wheel and studied its alignments, that is, its arrangements of rocks, cairns, and spokes. He found the arrangements point to the rising and setting places of the Sun at summer solstice, as well as the rising places of Aldebaran in Taurus, Rigel in Orion, and Sirius in Canis Major — all bright, important stars associated with the Solstice. Later another astronomer, Jack Robinson, found a cairn pair that marked the bright star Fomalhaut’s rising point with the Sun 28 days before solstice.

     Pictured above, sighting from cairn E through the center hub (which may have supported a pole) marks the summer solstice sunrise. Sighting from C through the center marked the equivalent solstice sunset.
Standing at cairn F, one could sight the once-yearly dawn, or heliacal, risings of the key stars Aldebaran, Rigel, and Sirius, which play symbolic roles in an ancient Cheyenne Massaum ceremony and are also important stars in the sacred Lakota circle constellation “The Animal”.

      The dawn or heliacal rising of a star is important because it pinpoints a date exactly. This is the day a star is first seen, just before dawn, after it has been behind the Sun for an entire season. From about 1200 AD to 1700 AD, these 4 stars would have acted as solstice markers for the Native Americans – Fomalhaut (F to D) would rise 28 days before the Summer Solstice, Aldebaran (F to A) would rise during the 2 days just before the solstice, Rigel (F to B) would rise 28 days after the solstice, and Sirius (F to C) 28 days after that, at the end of August and hence marking the end of summer and time to leave the mountain.

       Not all stars have heliacal risings because some stars remain above the horizon all the time. Only certain stars rise and flash into existence in the predawn glow of the horizon. Because these helical risings were so specific, just one day, they were used by many different ancient civilizations to mark specific events such as the drought season and planting time. It is not surprising that the Plains Indians would use heliacal risings to signal the coming and going of the solstice.  It makes a good calendar for the local Shaman. 

It should be noted: There are many who believe the circle is a reflection of the essence of life and that creating a circle is a sacred action. This circle, Medicine Wheel, is a place of communion with the Great Spirit, a place to obtain strong spiritual medicine. It is a place where many have experienced their vision quest, a place of ritual, a place of prayer, a place of lasting vision.