The Shoup Rock Shelters are two prehistoric

rock shelter A rock shelter (also rockhouse, crepuscular cave, bluff shelter, or abri) is a shallow cave-like opening at the base of a bluff or cliff. In contrast to solutional caves (karst), which are often many miles long or wide, rock shelters are alm ...

s located in Lemhi County,

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...

. The rock shelters, which were excavated in 1965, are located in a rift valley within the

Bitterroot Range The Bitterroot Range is a mountain range and a subrange of the Rocky Mountains that runs along the border of Montana and Idaho in the northwestern United States. The range spans an area of and is named after the bitterroot (''Lewisia rediviva ...

, near the Salmon River. The shelters provide evidence that the surrounding area had been occupied for at least 8000–8500 years before the present. In addition, the continuity of the archaeological remains found at the site suggests that the original inhabitants are the ancestors of the

Northern Shoshone Northern Shoshone are Shoshone of the Snake River Plain of southern Idaho and the northeast of the Great Basin where Idaho, Wyoming and Utah meet. They are culturally affiliated with the Bannock people and are in the Indigenous people of the Grea ...

and stayed in the region permanently after settling it. The rock shelters were added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

on November 8, 1974.

References

Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Idaho Geography of Lemhi County, Idaho National Register of Historic Places in Lemhi County, Idaho {{Idaho-NRHP-stub