Minutes from May1st, 2012 Meeting:
The Loveland Archaeological Society met at the Pulliam Community Building on Tuesday, May 1, 2012. President Andy Coca called the meeting to order at 7:20 p.m. There were 57 members and guests present. Guests were Tom Smith’s wife and daughter Ferne and Beth, Ron Roth’s son Ron Jr., Cecil Troutman’s wife Dee, Scott Roth who joined the club and Tim Veldhuizen. The minutes of the meeting were approved. Interim treasurer Sharon Lundt reported $2990.92 in the checking account.
There was discussion of a new Mammoth remains site being studied by Dr. Dennis Standford. Shane Skutvik talked about more excavation that is being done at the Soapstone site.
Since there had been a suggestion of moving the annual club picnic to a public park, a vote was taken which showed the membership in favor of continuing to hold the picnic on the regular August meeting date and at the home of Sharon Lundt.
Pam Whelden won the Find of the Month. Ray Lambert served as judge. Entrants discussed their finds.
The Memorial Day weekend field trip to the Harris Ranch at Bosler, Wyoming will be May 26, 27, and 28. Come whenever you can. PLEASE!! NO DIGGING, SURFACE FINDS ONLY. NO FIRES; keep cigarettes and ashes in your vehicle. DO NOT MAKE YOUR OWN ROADS; stay on ranch roads. DO NOT LEAVE ANY TRASH. RESPECT WILDLIFE, CATTLE, FENCES, AND GATES. NO HORSES, BIKES, ATVs, OR DOGS, unless on leash and under control at all times. Map enclosed.
The drawing brought in $57.00 with the following results:
DONORITEMWINNER(S)
Carol Ekhoff2 piles of Wyoming Wildlife MagazinesTason Tomez, Pam Whelden
Rich SavinoBone tools for flintknappingCarl Schaal
Pam Whelden2 bags of candyTason Tomez, Joseph Tomez
Overstreet’s Indian ArrowheadsCecil Troutman
Tom DuBovosBook-Land of Spotted EaglePam Whelden
Steve Campbell2 bags of scrapersSharon Lundt, Tason Tomez
Tyson Arnold2 prints of Bison Bone PileDee Troutman, Joseph Tomez
Jack CrandallBooks-Ancient MexicoShane Skutvik
Looking Beneath the SurfaceJim Mountain
MammothTom DuBovos
We enjoyed refreshments furnished by Jim Jones, Carl Schaal, Garry Weinmeister, Ray Lambert, Jim and Joyce Mountain.
Mark Boswell presented a program on Navajo Textiles. He illustrated his explanation of design choices, weaving techniques. History and materials used to make them, with slides. He had actual samples and rugs as well.
Please see the LAS News and Upcoming Events section on page 4 of this newsletter for an invitation to Margaret Harris’ 90th birthday party on Saturday, June 2, 2012, in Kersey, Colorado. All LAS members are invited to help her celebrate.
Jean Steinhoff, Secretary
MEETING NOTES:
DATE:June 5, 2012 Business meeting starts at 7:15 p.m.
PLACE:Pulliam Community Building, Loveland
PROGRAM:Show and Tell---Video
REFRESHMENTS:Sharon Lundt, Pam Whelden, Tom Smith
LAS May2012 Headlines:
Douglas County's Lamb Spring archaeological dig could rewrite human history
By Douglas Brown, The Denver Post, 4/15/2012
Molly the Columbian mammoth lived, grazed, and died, about 13,000 years ago near a spring in what is now a fast-developing chunk of Douglas County. Five thousand years later, early North American humans spent time at the same spring, where they killed and butchered bison.
We don't know if humans visited the spring at the same time as Molly, but if the Lamb Spring site produces evidence that they did — and it tantalizes with hope — the site could rewrite the scientific and cultural history of North America. And perhaps offer the Denver area a new attraction (see sidebar, Page 8E).
Lamb Spring sits in the Chatfield Basin, between South Platte Canyon Road and Chatfield Reservoir. "Stand on that site (Lamb Spring) and look around. You realize you are in the middle of one of the fastest-developing areas in Colorado," said Jim Walker, southwest regional director for The Archaeological Conservancy, an Albuquerque nonprofit that buys archaeologically promising land and safeguards it from development. The conservancy bought the Lamb Spring site in 1995. "The fact that we were able to find that site, buy it and preserve it, at the time we did, was a miracle. I'll bet within 10 years that area is going to be covered in houses."
Walker believes further excavation of Lamb Spring could show human activity between 13,000 and even 25,000 years ago, in which case "there would be a lot of rewriting of the peopling of North America."
"I would place Lamb Spring really high, in terms of its importance," he said. "If I were ranking Lamb Spring among the other 450 preserves we have, it would be in the top 10."
Evidence of Pleistocene megafauna like mammoths makes the Lamb Spring dig compelling in its own right, but mammoth sites pepper the West. Early-human findings, in contrast, are rare. Placing both in the same location sets Lamb Spring — the largest "mixed dig" in the country — apart.
The findings may do more than just embellish what we already know: that humans roamed North America as far back as 11,200 years ago. Some archaeologists believe Lamb Spring could provide solid evidence, instead of just speculation, that people lived in North America much earlier.
Rancher's surprise find
Today, the Lamb Spring dig amounts to little more than a weed-choked and trash-sprinkled depression in the ground, a cavity surrounded by 35 acres of undulating, fenced-in prairie. An informational plaque sits beside the gated dirt path that leads to the site. Once a month for half the year, people can watch a video about the site and then follow a tour guide to the swale to observe the grass.
If it weren't for a rancher's desire for a stock pond 50 years ago, the bones of Molly and 30 other mammoths — the largest find in Colorado, and the third- biggest in North America — would likely remain buried. But in 1960 Charles Lamb decided to use a spring on his land to make a fishing pond, and while digging he struck some big bones. Geologists identified them as mammoths.
In 1981, Smithsonian Institute archaeologist Dennis Stanford excavated the site and found many more mammoth bones, as well as camels, horses, sloths, llamas and wolves.
Stanford also found a 30-pound rock. Marks on the stone suggested it had been used as a butcher block. Geological forces could not have brought the stone to the site. Instead, Stanford theorized, early humans must have done it, and based on its location in the sediment, that could have happened 16,000 years ago. If the theory can be proved, it will mean humans dwelled at Lamb Spring at least that long ago.
For North American archaeologists, the faintest whisper of "paleo-Indian" usually sends hearts racing. Walker said he'll "drop everything" if he hears of a site that could be purchased. Signs of early humans in North America are scarce, largely because the population was small and nomadic. Most evidence amounts to a scrap here, a smidgen there.
But in addition to Lamb Spring's threat to upend the history of the peopling of North America, it also shows clear signs of a 9,000-year-old "Cody complex" bison kill, a site, similar to one found in Cody, Wyo., where humans camped, slaughtered buffalo, cut the meat, and hammered at bone with rocks to withdraw marrow. That alone makes Lamb Spring beguiling to archaeologists. But Lamb Spring, too, holds hints that the site was more than a quick way station for early hunters.
"I think Lamb Spring could yield what would be a jackpot — a campsite or village," said Walker. "That would be incredible."
"A lot of potential"
"The site tells us about the ancient environment, about the environment of the Front Range and the foothills, what they were like in the past, how it has changed, how climate has changed," said James Dixon, a University of New Mexico anthropology professor who has been active in Lamb Spring. "And it has the archaeological story, a later chapter. It has a lot of potential."
That potential seems to spread beyond Lamb Spring, too. Just three-quarters of a mile away, archaeologists from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science are unearthing mammoth bones and signs of early humans at a site they call Scott Spring.
"It's like a mini-Lamb Spring," said Steven Holen, curator of archaeology for the museum. "At Scott Spring we are seeing bones even older (than at Lamb Spring) that appear to have been broken by humans. That's what we are doing there — looking for evidence of humans older than Clovis (11,200 years ago)."
The team began excavating the site in 2010, and dug a test bed where a prairie dog had burrowed down into a mammoth tusk.
"There was ivory lying all around," Holen said. So far, they have identified a mammoth, a camel and a Pleistocene horse.
"These spring sites have great promise," he said. "They used those springs and hunted around those springs for thousands of years."
LAS Find of the Month, May 2012:
Members can bring an artifact to be entered into the competition at the monthly meeting, which will be judged based on the following rules:
1. Must be a member of LAS in good standing.
2. The artifact must be a personal find.
3. It must have been found within the specified time frame, i.e., within the month prior to the meeting.
4. The artifact doesn’t have to be a Colorado find—all that matters is that it was found in the last month.
The Find of the Month for May 2012 was made by Pam Whelden
Type: Pelican Lake
Material: Flattop Chalcedony
Location: Adams County, Colorado
LAS News and Upcoming Events:
May 26 – 28, 2012Loveland Archaeological Society Memorial Day Weekend field trip to the Harris
Ranch at Bosler, Wyoming. See map and instructions on the next page. Respect the
landowner and do not abuse the privilege. This includes the following: Do not litter;
respect gates, fences and cattle; drive only on established dirt roads and don’t bring
motorcycles and ATVs; camp only where designated; and if you bring an animal don’t
let it run loose. To view theLoveland Archaeological Society Code of Ethics please
go to the following website:
May – October 2012Free tours are offered by the Lamb Spring Archaeological Preserve in cooperation
with Douglas County Community Planning and Sustainable Development the first
Saturday morning of the month from May through October. For more information visit
the website at
June 2, 2012Margaret Harris’ 90th birthday celebration. All LAS members are invited to Margaret
Harris’ 90th birthday celebration on Saturday, June 2, 2012, at the Kersey Senior
Center from 1:00 to 4:00 pm. The Kersey Senior Center is located at 415 1st Street,
Kersey, Colorado. Please omit gifts. RSVP to Chari at 970-353-6316, Lois at
970-330-3929, or Margaret Harris at PO Box 97, Gill, CO 80624.
June 5, 2012June meeting. No Guest Speaker. Show and Tell with a video. Bring your favorite
pieces and share your favorite hunting stories.
June-October 2012Summer activities at Soapstone Prairie Natural Area north of Fort Collins. Would you
like monthly activity updates, trail recommendations and more? Sign up for the
Natural Areas electronic newsletter in the upper right corner of themain page of their
website:
- Sponsor of the Annual Loveland Stone Age Fair -
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