A man hunting elk in a southern Wyoming desert stumbled upon something much more mysterious, officials say.
As he retrieved his harvest Saturday, Nov. 11, a bright white object in the sagebrush caught his eye, Sweetwater Now reported.
It turned out to be a sun-bleached and apparently long-forgotten human skull, Wyo4News reported. Any human tissue had decomposed long ago, and the lower jaw was detached and lying undisturbed nearby, a spokesperson for the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office told the outlet.
The hunter found the skull in the Red Desert about four miles north of Wamsutter, in elk-hunting area 118 with no major roads nearby, the outlet reported. Wamsutter is about 170 miles northwest from Cheyenne.
The area is made up of rocky rims, rolling hills and sagebrush mesas, according to the Wyoming Fish and Game Department.
The southwestern portion has a dense network of two-track and private oil well roads, but no major public road access, Cowboy State Daily reported.
