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.
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