An exploration into the past

From the Coastal Plain to the High Desert

August 2-3, 2014

CAPULIN VOLCANO-FOLSOM SITE
AND ALIBATES FLINT QUARRIES

      The final leg of the exploration was devoted to two of the oldest sites in the archaeology of the area, and of the continent.  They both have their roots in the Paleo-Indian period and their influence extends to a very large region.  The first one is the site of the FOLSOM find. Formally identified as the White Horse Arroyo, it is the site that gave name to a generic type of tool that was later discovered throughout the continent: the Folsom Points. Although there is not very much at the site itself, its geography is important.  This was the path of the first Americans at the foot of the glaciers.  The second site is a quarry that had been in continuous exploitation for more than 10,000 years.  The tools and weapons made with the characteristic Alibates flint have been found thousands of miles away, and belonging to many different periods of technological development. On an otherwise very uninteresting drive, these sites were a welcome stop.

CAPULIN VOLCANO AND FOLSOM SITE

Fig. 1 - Capulin and another volcano
 from the road

Fig. 2 - Entrance to the park

Fig. 3 - Map with location of Capulin and Folsom sites

FOLSOM MAN VIDEO

Fig. 4 - Panoramic view from the crater towards the plains with several small volcanos

           While the geologic history of Capulin Volcano began well over a million years ago, its involvement in human history has been much more recent. Capulin has traditionally been a crossroads of human activity as diverse people and cultures traversed to and from the Great Plains.

Fig. 5 - View towards volcano plain

     

         Archaeological evidence found at the Folsom Man site, eight miles from Capulin Volcano, confirms that Paleoindians roamed this area in search of Pleistocene Bison as early as ten thousand years ago. Likewise, groups of Native Americans, such as the Jicarilla Apache and the Ute, used this region as hunting grounds until the arrival of the Spanish in 1541. 

Fig.6 - Diorama at Mesa Verde Museum of the Folsom Site

Fig. 8 - Bison Antiquus

Fig. 7 - Folsom point

Fig. 9 - Typical fluted Folsom point

Folsom Site or Wild Horse Arroyo (29CX1), about 8 miles west of Folsom, New Mexico, is the archaeological site that is the type site for the Folsom tradition, a Paleo-Indian cultural sequence dating to between 9000 BC and 8000 BC. The Folsom Site was excavated in 1926 and found to have been a marsh-side kill site or camp where 23 bison had been killed using distinctive tools, known as Folsom points.

Fig. 10 - White Horse Arroyo site - a buffalo trap

    This site is significant because it was the first time that artifacts indisputably made by humans were found directly associated with faunal remains from an extinct form of bison from the Late Pleistocene. The information culled from this site was the first of a set of discoveries that would allow archaeologists to revise their estimations for the time of arrival of Native Americans on the North American continent.

Fig. 11 - The "draw" or "buffalo jump" at the bottom of the ravine

The find was not investigated until four years after its discovery in 1908, but it  would turn the world of archaeology on its head by pushing the presence of man in North America back by at least 5,000 years to 12,000 years before present day.  Among the approximately thirty-two Bison antiquus skeletons were found at least twenty-six spear points.  These points are now known as "Folsom Points", and represent the pinnacle of projectile point technology.

Fig. 12 - One of the Folsom points in situ

The Bison species found at the site are now extinct.  They were fifty percent larger than the modern Bison, which are now often referred to, mistakenly, as Buffalo.  Such an animal would have stood twelve to fifteen feet tall at the shoulder when mature.  Even the modern Bison of today is considered a dangerous animal -- difficult to herd or contain.

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Fig. 13 - At Capulin's crater with Folsom site in the distance

        Based on research of the life styles and methods employed by various ancient peoples in history, archaeologists have generated some basic theories as to what may have occurred at the Folsom Site:

       A band of about 30 prehistoric humans were traversing the area in the fall, most likely headed north to winter in Colorado.  The season was deduced from the fact that yearling animals were among those killed.  They came upon a herd of Bison and proceeded to trap them in an arroyo in preparation for slaughter.  The animals in the rear would have been killed first, trapping the animals in front.  The hunters would most likely have thrust their spears into the animals from the safety of the rim above the arroyo.  It is possible that the spears where thrown, perhaps even with the aid of an atlatl. 

ALIBATES FLINT QUARRY

Fig. 14 - Location of Alibates Flint Quarry

Fig. 15 - The Canadian River
as it passes the quarry site

Alibates Flint Quarries is the only National Monument in the state of Texas, and is an integral part of Lake Meredith National Recreation Area.

  ALIBATES QUARRY VIDEO

       For thousands of years, people came to the red bluffs above the Canadian River for flint, vital to their existence. Demand for the high quality, rainbow-hued flint is reflected in the distribution of Alibates Flint through the Great Plains and beyond. Indians of the Ice Age Clovis and Folsom Cultures used Alibates flint for spear points to hunt the Imperial Mammoth around 10,000 years ago. The flint usually lies just below the surface at ridge level in a layer up to six feet thick. The quarry pits were not very large, between 5 to 25 feet wide and 4 to 7 feet deep. Many of these quarries were exploited by the Antelope Creek people, of the Panhandle culture, between 1200 and 1450. The stone-slabbed, multi-room houses built by the Antelope Creek people have long been of interest to the public and studied by archaeologists.

Fig. 17 - The "pits" of Alibates

Fig. 16 - Arrowheads made from flint

Fig. 18 - Alibates spear point

Fig. 19 - Alibates stone

Alibates flint is an extremely colorful stone with rainbow hues ranging in colors from pale gray and white to pink, maroon, bright red, orange-gold, and purple-blue. The stone has variable patterns including bands of alternating color that give it a striped and marbled pattern. Distinctive for its many colors, the flint comes from a 10-square-mile area around Lake Meredith, Texas but mostly is concentrated on about 60 acres atop a mesa in the heart of the Monument. The quarry pits are found around the mesa.

Fig.20 -  Alibates spearpoint and arrowheads

       Prehistoric peoples would come to the red bluffs above the Canadian River to harvest this multi-colored, highly prized stone that could hold a hard edge and that was in high demand along trading routes throughout North America. Projectile points and other tools made of Alibates stone have been found in sites across the Great Plains, the Southwest, as far north as Montana, and as far east as the Mississippi River.

FLINTKNAPPING VIDEO - LEARN TO MAKE SPEARHEAD

Key words: Texas 4th-7th grade Social Studies, Native American tribes, habitat and lifezones, cultural adaptation, Anazasi, Ancestral Pueblo, Rio Grande cultures, New Mexico and Colorado tribes, Paleo-Indians, Archaic and Classic Indians of the Southwest, Geography of the Rio Grande, Mesa Verde, Chaco, Taos, Acoma, Indian ruins, archaeological artifacts, teacher resources, Fund for Teachers, Texas.