About San Luis Valley Archaeology

Early Archaeological investigation in the Rio Grande drainage of Colorado, beginning in the late 1930s and 1940s, have generally been limited in scope and scale. Some investigations of note include that of A.L. Pearsall, who explored along the Rio Grande to the New Mexico border in 1939. Pearsall reported on the presence of artifactual evidence of Pueblo culture in the San Luis Valley including Bandelier Black-on-Gray pottery which was found near the Rio Grande to the south of Alamosa. Following Pearsall, C.T. Hurst,of Gunnison (the founder of the Colorado Archaeological Society), conducted archaeological field work in the Saguache area between 1939 and 1943. Hurst's work included the reporting of Folsom sites in the San Luis Valley.

Etienne Bernardeau Renaud, as Denver University's director of Archaeological Survey of the High Plains from 1930 to 1947, performed archaeological inventory work on the Rio Grande drainage in Colorado and northern New Mexico. Renaud defined the "Upper Rio Grande Culture" in 1944, as extending on both sides of the Rio Grande into New Mexico.

Other early investigators were Harold and Elizabeth Huscher, who inventoried and reported on stone structure remains in the Saguache and other areas of the San Luis Valley such as Wagon Wheel Gap, in 1943. The stone structures were reported to have circular or curved walls, dry-laid masonry, and locations on high points or mesa rims. They were often found with small corner notched projectile points.

Smithsonian archaeologists Dennis Stanford and Margaret "Pegi" Jodry have recently investigated and reinvestigated Folsom sites in the San Luis Valley to include the Stewart's Cattle Guard, Reddin and Black Mountain Folsom sites. Their work on these sites have added to our knowledge of the ancient Folsom culture and lifeways.

ARTICLES ON SLV ARCHAEOLOGY

Background Archaeology of the SLV: Early Archaeologist E.B. Renaud by Vince Spero

Background Archaeology of the SLV:Types of Projectile Points Found

Prehistoric Archaeological Site Types of the San Luis Valley

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