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Cedar Mountain

Written in collaboration with Meredith Taylor
(010‑222a & b)

Summary

Citizens' Proposal:
Intensive Inventory:
Wilderness Study Area:
BLM Recommendation:

26,975 acres
39,300 acres
21,560 acres
10,223 acres

Location and Access
Cedar Mountain is just 8 miles southwest of Worland in Washakie County situated on the east side of the Bighorn River. A good access is from County Road 172 to County Road 23 (Cowboy Springs Road) to enter the southwestern boundary area.

Highlights
Cedar Mountain is an imposing juniper-studded rock escarpment towering over the Bighorn Basin. Steep drainages, slick rock, and hoodoos and goblins of stone make this a big exciting area to explore. On the western boundary, grotto covered-bluffs drop sharply to the Bighorn River. The sagebrush and grass slopes are interspersed with cottonwoods lining the streambeds, and junipers which grow in belts and pockets along the hillsides.

This wilderness area is a rare example of a dry "cold" desert badland which borders a large river.

Wilderness Qualities
This high desert site offers a variety of outstanding recreation opportunities, including hunting and trapping, horseback riding, rockhounding, fishing and canoeing from the river front. BLM's Bighorn River Special Recreation Management Area encompasses the western half of Cedar Mountain, while the BLM has recommended the southern half of the area for wilderness designation.

Two to three hundred mule deer use crucial winter range and yearlong habitat here (WG&F, 1992). The Wyoming Game and Fish supported the area for wilderness designation because of its natural condition and its importance as year round deer and pronghorn antelope habitat.

Bald eagles (listed endangered/threatened under the Endangered Species Act) forage along the western edge of the area, and are observed nesting and incubating in riparian areas there (BLM 1990; WNDD, 1993). Merlin falcons and Richardson's merlin falcon, both rare and unique species as determined by the State, have been observed in the area (WNDD, 1993). Golden eagles, prairie falcons, and several hawk species nest throughout the area, while great blue herons have a riverside rookery just outside the boundary. Sage grouse strut and nest in the eastern portion.

Cedar Mountain provides habitat for many other species such as bobcats, chukar and gray partridge. Rock walls throughout the area provide habitat for Townsend's big-eared bats and for the pallid bat‑‑two State priority species due to their rarity (WNDD, 1993).

The Bighorn River provides aquatic habitat for two unique and rare State Priority species of fish - the Western silvery minnow and the Mississippi silvery minnow (WNDD, 1993). This section of the Bighorn River is rated Class III (of Regional Importance) by the Wyoming Game and Fish. Some of the game fishery the river contains include stocked and wild rainbow, Yellowstone cutthroat, Snake River cutthroat, Bear River cutthroat, brown, walleye, sauger, and linge cod.

Because of Cedar Mountain's vantage point over the Bighorn River, it was undoubtedly much used by native people. The area also contains a wealth of reptile and mammal fossils ranging from 65 to 80 million years old, as well as petrified wood.