SUNRISE – The ghost town of Sunrise was filled with live people Sept. 26-27 as the town celebrated the Sunrise Edition of the 86th Annual Stone Age Fair.

Exhibitors came from all over the nation to show their artifacts and to sell their creations. The usually sleepy town of Sunrise, which is home only to town owner John Voight was packed with cars and people who came to view prehistoric artifacts and attend demonstrations and a lecture series dealing with Sunrise past, present and future.

The event took place at the old YMCA from 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. Sunday. The YMCA was built in 1917 by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. who had a financial interest in the mining camp that had been set up in the town of Sunrise.

The exciting news surrounding the Stone Age Fair the past four years has been the archaeological dig that is currently underway and which has unearthed over 5,000 artifacts, some dating back 14,000 years to Clovis man.

Former state of Wyoming archaeologist George Zeimens who was one of the organizers for the fair and was a Sunday speaker on how the Powars II dig became a reality. He had an new excitement along with a renewed spring in his step as he announced breaking news released at this year’s fair.

“You know we have been given a grant to refurbish the YMCA and turn it into a museum,” Zeimens said. “But this week our corporation the Western Plains Historic Preservation Association was given a great gift by a great man. John Voight has given us this building to set up a museum of the artifacts mined here in Sunrise.”

Voight, who longed to see the YMCA turned into a museum, education and training center for Wyoming archaeology was excited to be able to help promote the Powars II dig and gladly donated the building.

Recently Voight had found out that grant money was secured to help refurbish the building.

Troy Reichert, a life skills teacher at Guernsey High School was instrumental in helping secure the grants.

“This past summer while Shawna (Reichert’s wife) was out taking pictures John was starting to sound like he might want to open up the town to some tourism or renting the YMCA out for special events. After hearing that I began to think that the YMCA could be the next big project for my SkillsUSA members after we finish the Guernsey VFW project.”

The chapter members had proven their commitment to the VFW project, so Reichert figured that there was a good chance they’d be up for this challenge as well. Early in July Reichert participated in a Harbor Freight Tools for Schools three-day Zoom meeting. It was supposed to be a weeklong session in California for all of the Harbor Freight Tools for Schools prize winners. Reichert was a $50,000 prize winner last fall, but COVID forced the online Zoom instead. 

“They asked us to create a dream pilot program that we wanted to do with our students, and then pitch our idea to them,” Reichert said. “If they liked it, they would give grants up to $10,000 to the schools. I called John the day they made this offer and I simply asked if he’d be willing to talk about Sunrise for a few minutes and listen to an idea I had. He happened to be in town so we went down to Ben’s Bar and talked over beer and food. Within minutes he was on board with the idea of the Guernsey-Sunrise SkillsUSA members rebuilding Sunrise, so then we created our plan of where to start and what to do.”

The next morning Reichert met with the Harbor Freight team and pitched them his idea. Three days later they sent him the grant paperwork, and by the first of August they had been awarded the maximum amount of $10,000 for the project.

“I knew the 10 grand would barely be enough to get all the tools we would need to begin the job, so I applied for a Wyoming Department of Education Cutting Edge grant in the amount of $12,515,” Reichert said. “On Sept. 16 I received the good news that the project was approved for the full amount.”

There are several pieces to this project that have yet to be put together. 

“We will definitely be remodeling the YMCA, starting with installing new or refurbished windows on all three floors, and repainting the front entrance and installing a new front door,” Reichert said.

The fair was electrified with the news of the new center for archaeology which was to be located in Sunrise, almost guaranteeing the town would once again be a thriving community, not for mining and manufacturing, but for mining and preservation.

Artifacts that have been dug from the grounds around the now defunct mine at Sunrise were on exhibit and there was also free artifact identification for people bringing in their personal finds.

Special speakers at the event included Dr. Juliet Morrow from the University of Arkansas who spoke Saturday at 1 p.m. about “red ochre” which is an ore that had mined in Sunrise for over 50 years. Voight spoke at 2:15 p.m. Saturday giving a history of the town of Sunrise. Sunday, Zeimens, spoke about “Powars II” which gives a history of the current dig and how it may one day be considered a world heritage site.