Fieldwork Dates: June 4 – 13 (travel not included)
Location: Las Animas, Colorado
Project Type: Survey, Testing, 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. We identified over 40 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 begin a multi-year comprehensive and collaborative archaeological investigation of the property. During this first session, participants will work alongside PCRG staff, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs (UCCS) and Oklahoma State University professors and students, and History Colorado staff conducting archaeological survey, testing, and intensive site documentation. Fieldwork will include hiking up to 5 miles each day on survey, conducting limited testing (1 x 1-m excavation squares) at selected sites, and conducting intensive documentation of selected sites, including some of the larger historical ranch complexes. Participants will camp around 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.

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Fieldwork Dates: June 22 – 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. We identified over 40 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 begin a multi-year comprehensive and collaborative archaeological investigation of the property.

The second session will continue work begun in Session 1. Participants will work alongside PCRG staff, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs (UCCS) and Oklahoma State University professors and students, and History Colorado staff conducting archaeological survey, testing, and intensive site documentation. Fieldwork will include hiking up to 5 miles each day on survey, conducting limited testing (1 x 1-m excavation squares) at selected sites, and conducting intensive documentation of selected sites, including some of the larger historical ranch complexes. Participants will camp around 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.

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Fieldwork Dates: July 20 – 29 (travel not included)
Location: Las Animas County, Colorado
Project Type: Excavation
Description:

The third and final 2024 session at Chancellor Ranch will be excavation at a rock shelter recorded during the 2022 assessment project. The shelter has extensive burned rock and charcoal-stained sediment deposits across much of the surface and is likely to contain extensive buried cultural deposits. Fieldwork will include a moderate hike into a side canyon of the Purgatoire River, transporting field equipment to and from the site, and spending the workday at the rock shelter conducting excavation under the supervision of PCRG staff. Participants should expect temperatures to reach into the 90s most days; PCRG will establish shade shelters and have extra water if needed.

Participants will camp around 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.

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Fieldwork Dates: August 16 – 24 (travel not included)
Location: Routt National Forest, Grand County, CO
Project Type: Testing and Survey
Description: PCRG will return to the Windy Ridge quartzite quarry near Rabbit Ears Pass for our fourth and final field season of research at the site. Windy Ridge contains nearly 190 quarry pits along with an extensive scatter of quarry debris in surrounding workshops that span hundreds of acres. This season, crews will conduct testing at sites documented during the 2023 field season, which focused on areas south and east of the quarry. Crews may also conduct some limited survey in the same general area. Camp logistics are still TBD but participants should expect tent camping with limited space for small campers and camper vans. Participants should be prepared to hike 3-5 miles each day at an elevation of about 9,000 ft.

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Fieldwork Dates: September 10-14 (travel not included)
Location: Comanche National Grasslands, Baca County, Colorado
Project Type: Survey and Testing
Description: More than 50 years ago, Colorado College students and faculty conducted a multi-year archaeological inventory and testing project in Picture Canyon and Holt Canyon, adjacent tributaries of the Cimarron River in southwestern Baca County, Colorado. Data from several of the sites they investigated have been important to the development of archaeological research in southeastern Colorado. However, the full results of the project have never been reported and site forms have been prepared for just 9 of the 22 sites they documented. Crucially, most of their excavation data remain unreported.

PCRG will revisit and re-record the sites documented by Colorado College to assess their current condition and to evaluate their potential for future research. These sites include rock shelters, lithic quarries, and stone features that likely were foundations for habitation structures. The field assessment will include small block surveys to confirm site locations and boundaries, along with limited testing at selected sites to assess the extent and integrity of subsurface cultural deposits. Participants should expect to hike 3-5 miles per day, mostly over moderate terrain, and should be prepared for daily temperatures in the 80s, possibly higher. Participants will camp around a Forest Service bunk house located approximately 20 miles from the project area.

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