Decades of archaeological excavations, research, and aboriginal consultation have revealed the complex history of Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump. Jack Brink is one of these researchers and a major accomplishment of his was developing an extensive understanding of what has come to be called “the processing area”. In 2016, a team from the Royal Alberta Museum returned to the processing area to remove a roasting pit that had been left intact by the earlier excavations. They recovered cultural material from a context that had been presumed to be below occupation levels. Radiocarbon dates on bone from this excavation proved to be the earliest dated cultural material recovered at the site, and older than the first presumed use of the site as a buffalo jump. In 2021, a joint team from the University of Lethbridge and the Royal Alberta Museum returned to the site to further explore this early use of the processing area, continuing the excavations started by Brink. While the area investigated was limited and materials discovered were minimal, the results were stunning, revealing that activities here have been occurring for more than 8,500 years. These results are presented as a tribute to Jack’s contributions to Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump.