2025 PCRG Summer Field Projects

Fieldwork Dates: June 7 – 16 (travel not included)
Location: Las Animas, Colorado
Project Type: Testing/Excavation
Description: In 2022, PCRG staff and volunteers embarked on a assessment survey of Chancellor Ranch, a 53,000-acre Colorado State Land Board parcel in central Las Animas County along the Purgatoire River. The work continued in 2024 and in total we’ve documented nearly 100 archaeological sites, including American Indian camp sites, lithic scatters, rock shelter habitations, and rock art, and more recent ranching complexes and settlements. This summer, with funding from the History Colorado State Historical Fund and the State Land Board, PCRG will conclude our work on the property. During this first session, participants will work alongside PCRG and History Colorado staff conducting test excavations at several sites. Fieldwork will include hiking up to 2 miles each day (roundtrip) to reach the testing sites followed by periods of standing and crouching while conducting text excavations in 1 x 1-m excavation squares. Participants will camp around a residence on the property but will have limited access to the interior facilities. PCRG will provide portable toilets for participant use, along with establishing an outdoor shower system and will provide access to clean drinking water. Limited space may be available for smaller trailers and camper vans.

Fieldwork Dates: June 24 – July 1 (travel not included)
Location: Las Animas County, Colorado
Project Type: Survey, Testing, and Site Documentation
Description: In 2022, PCRG staff and volunteers embarked on a assessment survey of Chancellor Ranch, a 53,000-acre Colorado State Land Board parcel in central Las Animas County along the Purgatoire River. The work continued in 2024 and in total we’ve documented nearly 100 archaeological sites, including American Indian camp sites, lithic scatters, rock shelter habitations, and rock art, and more recent ranching complexes and settlements. This summer, with funding from the History Colorado State Historical Fund and the State Land Board, PCRG will conclude our work on the property.

During the second and final session, participants will work alongside PCRG staff to wrap up the fieldwork on the property. Specific tasks will involve a variety of activities, including some survey, testing (to finish from Session 1, if necessary), site documentation, and photogrammetry and aerial photography. Fieldwork could include hiking up to 5 miles each day (roundtrip) to reach the testing sites followed by periods of standing and crouching while conducting text excavations in 1 x 1-m excavation squares. Participants will camp around a residence on the property but will have limited access to the interior facilities. PCRG will provide portable toilets for participant use, along with establishing an outdoor shower system and will provide access to clean drinking water. Limited space may be available for smaller trailers and camper vans.

Fieldwork Dates: September 1-10 (travel not included)
Location: Rio Grande National Forest, Saguache County
Project Type: Survey and Testing
Description: In 1858, Colo Colonel William W. Loring and his men built a wagon route from the San Luis Valley to the Salt Lake Valley. The route was constructed to improve the Army’s access from Fort Union, New Mexico, during the Mormon War. Loring’s road followed the original route of the North Branch of the Old Spanish Trail, but also incorporated Gunnison’s improved wagon roads in the area. This route became known as the Salt Lake Road/Government Road. On August 31, 1858, Loring’s command camped on the eastern slope of North Cochetopa Pass. Archaeological research conducted during the summer of 2021 by Alpine Archaeological Consultants, Inc. on behalf of PCRG and the RGNF, identified site 5SH5316 in the East Pass Creek valley as the likely location of Loring’s camp. That site, now designated the East Pass Creek site, also preserves older Indigenous American and more recent European American components. Limited archaeological testing undertaken by Alpine indicates that subsurface cultural deposits occur throughout the site.

Participants will conduct test excavations, along with some survey, while working alongside PCRG staff students and faculty from Colorado College. Participants should expect moderate hiking each day, along with periods of kneeling and crouching while conducting excavations. A field camp will be established at Upper Crossing, a former Forest Service Guard Station. Crews will tent camp around the guard station while taking advantage of the limited indoor facilities.