W Mountain Folsom Archaeology Site

Today I went on a field trip with the some of the other library staff to the Folsom Archaeology Site on Tenderfoot ("W") Mountain. The tour was headed by Casey Dukeman, a lecturer and archeologist on this site. He started off with some background about Folsom period, which covered from 10,500 to 8000 B.C.E., and the Tenderfoot site is one of the few sites that have structures from these prehistoric Native-Americans. Most Folsom people were hunter-gathers but the Folsom site has two different structures that are/have been excavated so far. The first photo is the first building site where Casey theorized was used for construction of stone weapons and may have been used as a guest or bachelor dwelling. Carbon-dating of bone fragments put the age of the structure at around 10,400 B.C.E. Some of the most complete and important Folsom points were found here.

Next, we walked to the edge of the Mesa and I took some photos of the Gunnison Valley, this is one photo:

Currently, students and teaching assistants were excavating the second structure, which appears to be more of a family dwelling with the dwelling being built better and from the tools found, more of a game processing and cooking center. More likely where the main family group lived. This photo you can see Casey giving the lecture while students worked on the site.

I found myself humbled when I was touring this site, the first time I have ever been on an active archaeology site, and really the first time I have been around any human habitation this old. Even though Tenderfoot mountain is higher than the valley below, the local topology results in warmer micro-climate in the winter. During the time these people were here, the area was surrounded with pinon forest, now of course, it is sage-brush. This is site is of major importance in our understanding of this time period in the Gunnison Valley and it made me wonder what other archaeological mysteries are around in Colorado Mountains. Casey mentioned that to totally excavate this site would take over 300 years, so there is so much we can learn. In all, a fascinating trip and one that I will take again in a heart beat.
Further information about this site can be found on
Western's Anthropology website.