Dinwoody Tradition 1000 A.D., Hot Springs County, Wyoming
A Wyoming rancher in the upper Wind River valley told me about the Water Ghost Woman. He said one day he slipped into a glacier-fed lake and couldn’t climb out. A hand miraculously lifted him onto the bank. The Water Ghost Woman had rescued him.
The Shoshone people say the water ghosts, pa waip, are dangerous. They shoot invisible arrows into people, causing illness and drowning children. The stories made me all the more anxious to see a water ghost petroglyph. My elderly Wyoming guide, Ruby L., offered to guide me to the most beautiful pa waip: Water Ghost Woman and her spiritual helper, Turtle. The lengthy route involved a deeply rutted, washed out dirt road. When we reached the site, a storm threatened and we quickly retreated to the highway. A year later I returned.
When the sun had sunk low on the horizon I could see the shadows of tear streaks on her face. Her mouth, eyes and nose were natural concave and convex areas in the rock. Her expression was enigmatic, a smile, a sneer, a sigh? I slept nearby under the stars but heard no cries in the night winds. At first light she appeared clearly in the shadow, holding her bow, with her spiritual assistant, Turtle. She disappeared into the rock with the rising sun.
Like most Dinwoody petroglyphs, Water Ghost Woman faces water, a creek bed near a lush spring. As I approached the spring, a small green rattlesnake rose out of the shallow water and rattled a warning. Water Ghost Woman is located on private property. To date, bad roads, rattlesnakes and anonymity have protected the site