Denver: An Archaeological History

289 Pages·2008·6.63 MB·English

by  Sarah M Nelson

Denver
Timberline Books
Stephen J. Leonard and Thomas J. Noel, editors
Colorado’s Japanese Americans, Bill Hosokawa
Denver: An Archaeological History, Sarah M. Nelson, K. Lynn Berry,
Richard F. Carrillo, Bonnie L. Clark, Lori E. Rhodes, and Dean Saitta
A Tenderfoot in Colorado, R. B. Townshend
Denver
An ArchAeologicAl history
sarah M. nelson, K. lynn Berry, richard F. carrillo,
Bonnie J. clark, lori e. rhodes, and Dean saitta
foreword by
Stephen J. Leonard
University Press of Colorado

To the Memory of John L. Cotter
© 2008 by the University Press of Colorado
Published by the University Press of Colorado
5589 Arapahoe Avenue, Suite 206C
Boulder, Colorado 80303
Previously published by the University of Pennsylvania Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
The University Press of Colorado is a proud member of
the Association of American University Presses.
The University Press of Colorado is a cooperative publishing enterprise supported, in part,
by Adams State College, Colorado State University, Fort Lewis College, Mesa State College,
Metropolitan State College of Denver, University of Colorado, University of Northern
Colorado, and Western State College of Colorado.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials. ANSI Z39.48-1992
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Denver : an archaeological history / Sarah M. Nelson . . . [et al.].
p. cm. — (Timberline books)
Revised ed. of: Denver / Sarah M. Nelson. c2001.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-87081-935-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Denver (Colo.)—Antiquities. 2. Denver
Region (Colo.)—Antiquities. 3. Denver (Colo.)—History. 4. Denver Region (Colo.)—His-
tory. 5. Frontier and pioneer life—Colorado—Denver Region. 6. Indians of North
America—Colorado—Denver Region—Antiquities. I. Nelson, Sarah M., 1931– II. Nelson,
Sarah M., 1931– Denver.
F784.D447D46 2008
978.8'83—dc22
2008035505
Cover design by Daniel Pratt
c o n t e n t S
f o r e w o r d by Stephen J. Leonard ix
p r e f a c e xi
c h a p t e r o n e 1
Greater denver aS a reGion of frontierS and boundarieS
c h a p t e r t w o 21
GeoLoGy and environment
c h a p t e r t h r e e 61
prehiStoric SiteS
c h a p t e r f o u r 111
contact, confLict, and coexiStence
c h a p t e r f i v e 139
hiStoric archaeoLoGy
c h a p t e r S i x 221
concLuSion
a f t e r w o r d 229
John L. cotter
r e f e r e n c e S c i t e d 243
i n d e x 269

f o r e w o r d
Teachers tell students to dig into a subject to really understand it. Archaeologists take
that advice literally. For more than a century, they have shoveled dirt to reveal Colorado’s
past. Yet despite all that digging, most Coloradans can claim, at best, only a superficial
grasp of the state’s archaeological riches. For this we can, tongue in cheek, blame the
Ancestral Puebloans at Mesa Verde whose spectacular cliff dwellings have monopolized
the public’s attention. Few people realize that artifacts found in Golden, near Denver,
predate Mesa Verde’s Cliff Palace by some 5,000 years. Few know that there are hun-
dreds of archaeological sites within thirty-five miles of the state capitol.
Denver: An Archaeological History by Sarah Nelson and her five collaborators fills in
some of the blanks by presenting the results of more than seven decades of archaeologi-
cal work in the Denver area. Here readers will learn not only of ancient sites but also
of excavations that illuminate relatively recent nineteenth-century history, such as those
at Four Mile House at 715 South Forest Street and at the Tremont House near Speer
Boulevard and Auraria Parkway.
A beacon on the proximate and distant past, the volume complements other
archaeological studies published by the University Press of Colorado, including Dennis
J. Stanford and Jane S. Day’s edited volume Ice Age Hunters of the Rockies (1992), Mark
Stiger’s Hunter-Gatherer Archaeology of the Colorado High Country (2001), and Robert
H. Brunswig and Bonnie L. Pitblado’s edited volume Frontiers in Colorado Paleoindian
Archaeology (2007). It is also a welcome addition to the University Press of Colorado’s
Timberline Series, which aims to present scholarly treatments of Colorado’s people and
places.
—Stephen J. Leonard
co-editor, timberLine SerieS