Mark E. Miller spent his youth and early adulthood on a large ranching operation in Carbon County, Wyoming, started by his great-grandfather Isaac C. Miller in 1881. Mark lived around livestock for thirty-two years before he moved on to a full-time career in archaeology, receiving undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University of Wyoming and a PhD at the University of Colorado. He served as Wyoming State Archaeologist for three decades and today holds an adjunct professorship in the anthropology department at the University of Wyoming. Mark lives along the Big Laramie River in Albany County, Wyoming.