Preservation and Partnerships along the Black Range of Southern New Mexico

Archaeology Southwest Magazine Vol. 18, No. 2
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Issue editor: Karl W. Laumbach, Human Systems Research, Inc.

The long, dark chain of mountains that divides the Río Grande from the Gila and Mimbres drainages in southern New Mexico is called the Black Range. Numerous creeks began in that dark divide, running east towards the Río Grande, sometimes on the surface, other times dropping below to present the visitor with only a dry canyon. From north to south they number nine in all: Alamosa, Cuchillo Negro, Palomas, Seco, Las Animas, Percha, Trujillo, Tierra Blanca, and Berrenda. As the drainages flow from west to east, each passes through the representative zones of a Southwestern landscape, marked first by ponderosa, then by pinyon and juniper, by grasslands, by mesquite and creosotebush, and finally to the riparian bottoms of the Río Grande. Others, farther south, drain not into the Río Grande but into the eastern edge of the Mimbres Basin.

Since 1972, Human Systems Research, Inc. (HSR) has been interweaving site preservation, archaeological research, and public education in this and other parts of New Mexico. This issue of Archaeology Southwest celebrates HSR’s many successes and highlights the research conducted in the vicinity of the Black Range by HSR, its partners, and its colleagues.

This issue was made possible by a generous gift from Benjamin W. Smith.

Articles include:

Preservation and Partnerships along the Black Range of Southern New Mexico — Karl W. Laumbach, HSR

A Leap of Faith — Deborah M. Dennis, HSR

The Cañada Alamosa Project: Investigations of a Prehistoric Frontier — Karl W. Laumbach, HSR

History from the Ground Up — Dennis O’Toole, Cañada Alamosa Institute

Pinnacle Ruin — Stephen H. Lekson, University of Colorado, Boulder

Previous Research in the Black Range — Karl W. Laumbach, HSR

Layers of Time in the Pinnacle Midden — Curtis Nepstad-Thornberry, University of Colorado, Boulder

The Mystery of the Great Kiva at the Cuchillo Site — Richard Chapman, Office of Contract Archaeology, University of New Mexico

Archaeology of the Río Grande in Sierra County, New Mexico — David A. Phillips, Jr., Maxwell Museum and University of New Mexico, and Signa Larralde, Bureau of Land Management

Herbert Yeo’s F Sites — Stephen H. Lekson, University of Colorado, Boulder

Francisco Bojorquez: Sierra County’s Legendary Sheriff — Karl W. Laumbach, HSR

Lake Valley: Echoes of the Past — Neal W. Ackerly, Dos Rios Consultants, Inc.

Back Sight — William H. Doelle

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