‘You really build a community’: Students and program directors celebrate Pitt’s Wyoming Spring Creek Preserve

This year, Pitt’s Frederick Honors College is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Allen L. Cook Spring Creek Preserve in Rock River, Wyoming. 

In January 2005, Wyoming rancher Allen Cook gifted Pitt’s Honors College over 4,000 acres of land in eastern Wyoming. The site, located on the Morrison Formation, has a history in the Pittsburgh area. It was on the Morrison Foundation that Carnegie Museum researchers discovered the fossils of Dippy, or Diplodocus carnegii, in 1899. A fiberglass replica of the dinosaur now stands as a centerpiece outside the Carnegie Library, located between the Carnegie Museums of Natural History and Art in Oakland. 

Since 2006, Pitt has used the site to host summer courses for students in the Frederick Honors College. Collaborating with the University of Wyoming, between six and 15 students pursue academic research each year in areas of archeology, paleontology, ecology and North American history. Over 200 students have participated in the program, which typically lasts from July to August. 

The course focus varies by semester, according to Josh Cannon, the director of research at Pitt’s Honors College. Cannon led a summer class in 2025 and co-led classes in 2023 and 2024 with James Johnson, a University of Wyoming anthropology professor. While Cannon’s earlier classes focused on more extensive archeology and paleontology research, his 2025 class was more comprehensive by offering students an introduction to field studies. 

Heather Curtin, global programs manager of Pitt Honors’ Office of Global Learning, said the preserve used to host a summer studio arts program called “Wyoming Studio Arts Field Study.” The program, hosted by studio arts professor Delanie Jenkins, ran concurrently with a paleontology course. Students in the arts program accompanied the science group as they explored the preserve’s landscape. The class ended with a creative project that the students presented to the paleontology group. 

This summer, students will participate in a course called “People and Other Animals,” a nod to the namesake Pitt anthropology course, ANTH 1660, taught by anthropology professor Emily Wanderer. According to the preserve’s course description, students will analyze how different beliefs can shape how people engage with the natural world. 

According to Curtin, students in the course travel to the Laramie preserve, as well as Cheyenne, Wyoming and Grand Teton National Park. 

“They’re going to be visiting so many different landscapes, and they’ll have a chance to explore topics in ecology, in climate, in animal preservation, conservancy. It’s going to be awesome,” Curtin said. 

Cannon said students tend to particularly enjoy the expansiveness of the space, especially compared to the urban lifestyle in Oakland. 

“It’s a little bit overwhelming, but in a good way,” Cannon said. “They call it Big Sky Country … I remember one time we watched a rainstorm come in and we saw so much of the sky. We could see the sun shining above the rainstorm — like, you could see a sunny sky and a rainstorming sky all in one picture — which I don’t think I’d ever seen before in my life.” 

Curtin has only attended the preserve with students once, but was “floored” over how well they adjusted to the rural conditions. 

“Not one time did they complain that it was so incredibly hot and the dorms weren’t air conditioned,” Curtin said. “It was amazing to see students who really had no affiliation with the space previously loving it.” 

Jocelyn Howell, a junior majoring in history and economics, attended the preserve as a sophomore in 2024 with four other students — two from the University of Pittsburgh and two from the University of Wyoming. Howell said she signed up for the course because of her interests in archeology and history. 

“I didn’t really know what I was really getting myself into, but I saw the opportunity, and I was like, ‘Oh, this sounds really interesting,’” Howell said.

Howell grew up on a farm just outside of Philadelphia, where she and her family raised chickens and horses. With life on the farm so quiet, being at the preserve made her feel at home again — especially compared to her time in Pittsburgh. During her last three years at Pitt, she said she’s come to dislike the noisy nights in Oakland. 

“You walk out [in Wyoming], and you could hear the wind rustling through the bushes and through the prairie grass,” she said. “But other than that, it was completely dead silent, absolutely nothing. I loved it.”

Emma Christensen, a junior museum studies and anthropology major, is another student who attended the program with Howell. Christensen is originally from Kentucky, so she said her southern rural background eased her transition at the preserve. 

Though Christensen doesn’t consider herself an “outdoors” person, she still loved the program — so much so that she is thinking about working out west after she graduates next year, just to experience the scenery again.

“Even in the 105-degree sun, it was still fun,” Christensen said. “I’m looking for jobs out west, especially museums out there, just so I can go back to the landscape because I really like it a lot.” 

Howell would recommend students take the course, as it has the potential to build strong friendships. She reminisced on the group spending their nights riding mechanical bulls, looking at the stars and eating group dinners. 

“We became great friends. I still talk to them now,” Howell said. “It’s just a great experience where you feel you really built a strong community.” 

This story was updated on March 2 to correct the location of the site and source’s name spellings. The Pitt News regrets this error and remains dedicated to the most accurate news reporting possible.