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PROGRAM FOR AVOCATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL CERTIFICATION

The PAAC class on Colorado Archaeology will begin at 6:00 PM on Friday, February 28, and will continue on Saturday and Sunday, March 1 and 2, from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Kevin Black, Assistant Colorado State Archaeologist, will be the instructor. Meeting place is the BLM building at 1921 State Avenue in Alamosa. The door will open at 5:30 PM on Friday.

The required numbers of people have signed up for this class, but it remains open until Friday evening for additional people who may wish to join it. The total fee is $12.00. Our thanks to Julie Howard and Loretta Mitson for making the arrangements for the PAAC training.

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SCIENCE FAIR HELPERS NEEDED

The San Luis Valley Archaeological Network will host an archaeological exhibit at the San Luis Valley Science Fair in Alamosa on March 13 and 14, 1997. The exhibit will feature information about area rock art and projectile point types. Science Fair participants will have the opportunity to draw, paint with crushed natural pigments, and discuss rock art and the need for its protection. Various other educational materials will be available for dissemination. Volunteers are needed to help on Thursday, March 13, and especially on Friday, March 14. Shifts will be from 3 to 6 hours between 9:00 AM and 6:00 PM. Please contact Ken Frye at 657-3161 or 852-6233.

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APRIL FIELD TRIP SCHEDULED

Ken Frye will lead a field trip into the Lime Kiln Creek area on Saturday, April 19, to view a historic lime kiln, petroglyphs, and probable Ute Indian stone structure sites. We also will visit the historic settlement of La Loma de San Jose, dating to 1859. We will meet at 10:00 AM at "The Bulletin Board" just south of U.S. 160, about 7 miles west of Monte Vista. The bulletin board can be easily seen when you turn south onto the dirt road opposite Rio Grande County Road SW. Bring your lunch and garb for a day outdoors. Please contact Ken Frye at 657-3161 (home) or 852-6233 (work) for more information.

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CHIMNEY ROCK FIELD TRIP

Bruce Ellis, Archaeologist for the Pagosa Ranger District of the San Juan/Rio Grande National Forest, has kindly agreed to give the SLV Archaeological Network a special guided tour of the Chimney Rock Archaeological Area to the west of Pagosa Springs. The tentative date for the trip is Saturday, June 7. There will be more about this outstanding field trip in the April Archaeo-Update.

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RIO GRANDE COUNTY MUSEUMTALK

On Tuesday, April 29 at 7:00 PM, Rio Grande National Forest Archaeologist Vince Spero will give a presentation titled "Known Paleoindian Occupation of the San Luis Valley and Adjacent Mountain Environments in the Upper Rio Grande Drainage, Colorado" at the Rio Grande County Museum in Del Norte. Area Folsom sites will be detailed and discussed relative to changing climatic conditions and the resultant changes in ecologic conditions of the time. This program is open to the public. For more information call the Rio Grande County Museum at 657-2847.

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SEDIMENT CORE FROM BLACK MOUNTAIN LAKE
ONE OF THE DEEPEST IN COLORADO

On January 27, people from the Smithsonian Institution, the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTARR), the Mineral County Search and Rescue unit, and the San Juan/Rio Grande National Forest cooperated in obtaining a sediment core from Black Mountain Lake located in the mountains to the west of Creede. Obtaining the core from the isolated, frozen, lake at 11,000' in the middle of a snowy Colorado winter was no easy task. Mineral County Sheriff Phil Leggitt and Under-sheriff Bill Fairchild were the heroes of the venture, devoting two exhausting days to prepare snow-blocked trails and to haul in all of the equipment by snowcat and snowmobile. The project is a part of the Smithsonian's investigation of the nearby Black Mountain Folsom site dating to 10,600 BP (before present).

The Black Mountain site, located at an elevation of 10,160', was occupied by people of the Folsom culture, skilled hunters of a now extinct form of bison. They are among the earliest cultures known to inhabit the North America.

Analysis of the 23-foot-long core, which is among the deepest in Colorado, will provide information which can help determine past vegetative composition and climatic regimes in the San Juan Mountains in Folsom, earlier, and later time periods. In addition, the analysis will add to the knowledge of forest fire history in the spruce/fir ecologic zone, of which little is known.

Pollen analysis, searching for diatoms and insects, the analysis of carbon, and studying sediments will help to reconstruct paleoenvironmental conditions near the Black Mountain locality. Radiocarbon dating will be done to correlate the changes of climatic conditions.

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