FORT BRIDGER — After a short, valiant battle with an aggressive cancer, Martin James Lammers, of Fort Bridger, Wyo.; passed away on April 4, 2023, while in home hospice care.
He was born on June 15, 1954, in Evanston, Wyo.; to the late Clarence Lammers and Marge Lammers of Mountain View, Wyo. He was the fourth of six siblings.
Martin lived most of his life in Bridger Valley. He graduated from Mountain View High School in 1972, attended Western Wyoming Community College and the University of Utah, where he planned on getting a degree in Astro physics. But plans change, and after working various jobs, in 1990 Martin took an archeology class being offered at Western Wyoming Community College and, as they say, the rest is history.
Martin discovered his love for archeology and found a lifelong friend and mentor in the class instructor, Dudley Gardner. He and Dudley spent the next 32 years working on over 300 archaeological sites, primarily in Wyoming but also in Tennessee, New Mexico, Colorado, California, Montana and Utah.
Working with Dudley, they excavated five major sites: Eagle Rock, a Paleo Site, Kuck Shelter, a Fremont Structure, Eagle Point, a unique rock shelter, all in Colorado and the Evanston Chinatown dig and the ongoing Fort Bridger site excavation.
They restored a Fremont Granary (850 to 950 AD), worked on the Chinatown Historic Landmark, and co-authored articles for Wyoming Archaeologist and Society for Historical Archaeology journals. Martin and Dudley have written over 50 archaeological reports and have three published articles. The technical publications were primarily for the Bureau of Land Management, the State of Wyoming and a few for the National Park Service.
Martin was meticulous in documenting and drawing the sites they excavated and cataloging the artifacts found in the digs. He worked for the archeology department at WWCC off and on in this capacity.
He worked tirelessly for the Fort Bridger Historical Association and served as the organization’s president until his death, almost 20 years. He was a friend of the Fort, and there was not anything you could ask him about the site or it’s history that he did not know. He loved the yearly Rendezvous and could be seen striding through the crowds in period costume, working the museum concession or lecturing on Fort and Fort Bridger history. For such an unassuming man, his contributions were phenomenal.
Martin never married but his work and the friends he made through his work became his extended family. Any conversation with Martin could become a lesson on any variety of subjects. His knowledge of history, archeology, astronomy, and physics among other subjects, was endless. His nieces and nephews will tell you that he was a fount of information for them and never ceased to amaze them with the different subjects he could talk about.
Martin was known for his patience and kindness in imparting these lessons and no question could stump him. As one nephew stated, “he was a hidden gem.”
The family would like to thank Cowboy Cares for their hospice care and our sister, Pat and her husband, Dan for putting their lives on hold to care for Martin.
Martin was preceded in death by his parents, Clarence and Marge Lammers. He is survived by sisters: Pat(Dan) Watson, Marilyn(Tom) Rudy, Marj (Larron) Moretti, Alison(Dwaine) Lyman; brother, Mitch(Sally) Lammers; and 11 nieces, nephews and their families and his good friend, Dudley Gardner.
Graveside services are scheduled for Martin at 11 a.m. on June 10, 2023, at the Fort Bridger Cemetery.
