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Blackwater Draw is an intermittent stream channel about long, with headwaters in
Blackwater Draw National Historic Landmark
contains an important archaeological site that was first recognized in 1929 by Ridgley Whiteman of Clovis, New Mexico. Blackwater Locality No. 1 (29RV2; LA3324) is the type-site of the Clovis culture. The first large-scale excavation occurred in 1932, though local residents had been collecting bone and lithic materials for decades. Evidence of "fluted" points, spearheads now known as Clovis points (a New World invention) and other stone and bone weapons, tools, and processing implements were found at the archaeological site. The Clovis points were lanceolate and often, though not always, longer than Folsom points. The Clovis-age artifacts are in association with the remains of extinct Late Pleistocene megafauna, including mammoth,
Towards the end of the Pleistocene period, the climate began to change, which brought warmer and drier weather, causing the water flow in the region to dramatically decrease. This decrease caused small seasonal lake basins called playas to form. These areas became popular hunting locations for early North Americans.
Since its discovery, the Blackwater Locality No. 1 site has been a focal point for scientific investigations by academic institutions and organizations from across the country. The Carnegie Institute, Smithsonian Institution, Academy of Natural Sciences, National Science Foundation,
NPS Focus site
. and incorporated into the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.
Blackwater Draw Museum
was first opened to the public in 1969, at 42987 Highway 70, Portales, New Mexico primarily to display artifacts uncovered at the Blackwater Locality No. 1 site. The artifacts and displays illustrated life at the site during the Clovis period (over 13,000 years ago) through the recent historic period. In 2017, the museum moved onto the Eastern New Mexico University (ENMU) campus, and expanded its focus to incorporate local history, as well as archaeology on a broad scale. Exhibits now include descriptions of archaeological work, different archaeological sites, cultural complexes, and scientific methods, among other topics. Visitors can learn more information about Blackwater Draw, archaeology, and see materials from the greater Southwest obtained from private collections. Currently, the Miles Collection displays Southwestern pottery, basketry, and textiles. As of August 2017, Blackwater Draw is under the direction of Dr. Brendon Asher of ENMU in
Department of Anthropology and Applied Archaeology
ENMU students are able to work at the museum and site as student employees, interns, or volunteers. Anthropology students regularly use museum collections for class projects, research, and master's theses. Both facilities host class visits from ENMU and K-12 year round.
Theclovissite.wordpress.com: ''Current research at the Blackwater Draw Clovis type site''Blackwater Draw Facebook Page
* * {{authority control Clovis sites Canyons and gorges of New Mexico Landforms of Roosevelt County, New Mexico Native American museums in New Mexico Archaeological museums in New Mexico Museums in Roosevelt County, New Mexico University museums in New Mexico Archaeological type sites Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in New Mexico Pre-Columbian archaeological sites Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in New Mexico History of Roosevelt County, New Mexico National Historic Landmarks in New Mexico Native American history of New Mexico Brazos River Llano Estacado National Register of Historic Places in Roosevelt County, New Mexico
Roosevelt County, New Mexico
Roosevelt County is a List of counties in New Mexico, county located in the U.S. state of New Mexico. As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, the population was 19,846. Its county seat is Portales, New Mexico, Portales. The county was ...
, about southwest of Clovis, New Mexico, and flows southeastward across the Llano Estacado toward the city of Lubbock, Texas
Lubbock ( )
is the 10th-most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of government of Lubbock County. With a population of 260,993 in 2021, the city is also the 85th-most populous in the United States. The city is in the northw ...
, where it joins Yellow House Draw to form Yellow House Canyon
Yellow House Canyon is about long, heading in Lubbock, Texas, at the junction of Blackwater Draw and Yellow House Draw, and trending generally southeastward to the edge of the Llano Estacado about east of Slaton, Texas; it forms one of three ma ...
at the head of the North Fork Double Mountain Fork Brazos River.United States Board on Geographical Names. 1964. Decisions on Geographical Names in the United States, Decision list no. 6402, United States Department of the Interior, Washington DC, p. 49. It stretches across eastern Roosevelt County, New Mexico
Roosevelt County is a List of counties in New Mexico, county located in the U.S. state of New Mexico. As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, the population was 19,846. Its county seat is Portales, New Mexico, Portales. The county was ...
, and Bailey, Lamb, Hale, and Lubbock Counties of West Texas and drains an area of .Seaber, P.R., Kapinos, F.P. and Knapp, G.L. 1987. Hydrological unit maps. United States Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper 2294, p. 46.
Archaeology
ThBlackwater Draw National Historic Landmark
contains an important archaeological site that was first recognized in 1929 by Ridgley Whiteman of Clovis, New Mexico. Blackwater Locality No. 1 (29RV2; LA3324) is the type-site of the Clovis culture. The first large-scale excavation occurred in 1932, though local residents had been collecting bone and lithic materials for decades. Evidence of "fluted" points, spearheads now known as Clovis points (a New World invention) and other stone and bone weapons, tools, and processing implements were found at the archaeological site. The Clovis points were lanceolate and often, though not always, longer than Folsom points. The Clovis-age artifacts are in association with the remains of extinct Late Pleistocene megafauna, including mammoth,
camel
A camel (from: la, camelus and grc-gre, κάμηλος (''kamēlos'') from Hebrew or Phoenician: גָמָל ''gāmāl''.) is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. C ...
, horse, bison
Bison are large bovines in the genus ''Bison'' (Greek: "wild ox" (bison)) within the tribe Bovini. Two extant and numerous extinct species are recognised.
Of the two surviving species, the American bison, ''B. bison'', found only in North Ame ...
, saber-toothed cat, sloths
Sloths are a group of Neotropical xenarthran mammals constituting the suborder Folivora, including the extant arboreal tree sloths and extinct terrestrial ground sloths. Noted for their slowness of movement, tree sloths spend most of their li ...
, and dire wolf that were hunted by the early peoples who visited the site. Generations of some of the earliest New World inhabitants hunted and camped at Blackwater Draw, creating stratified levels of archaeological remains from many different time periods, including Clovis, Folsom, Midland, Agate Basin, and various Archaic period occupants.
Clovis chipped stone technology is currently one of the oldest and most widespread chipped stone technologies recognized in the New World; radiocarbon dates on sediment from the Clovis layers at Blackwater Draw average around 11,290 years before the present. Two of the projectile points from Blackwater Draw were used as the type specimens to define Clovis chipped stone technology in the 1930s.
The archaeological site is known for its well-defined and dated stratigraphic horizons that exhibit numerous cultural sequences. The sequences begin with the some of the earlier New World peoples and continue through the southwestern archaic, and into the historic period. Investigations at Blackwater Draw have recovered protein residue on Clovis weapons, indicating their use as hunting and possibly butchering tools on extinct Pleistocene animals.
Towards the end of the Pleistocene period, the climate began to change, which brought warmer and drier weather, causing the water flow in the region to dramatically decrease. This decrease caused small seasonal lake basins called playas to form. These areas became popular hunting locations for early North Americans.
Since its discovery, the Blackwater Locality No. 1 site has been a focal point for scientific investigations by academic institutions and organizations from across the country. The Carnegie Institute, Smithsonian Institution, Academy of Natural Sciences, National Science Foundation, United States National Museum
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...
, National Geographic Society, and more than a dozen major universities either have funded or participated in research at Blackwater Draw. Eastern New Mexico University owns and manages the excavations and visitations at the site.
The Anderson Basin district around Blackwater Draw in Roosevelt County, near Clovis and Portales
In Mexico, ''portales'' (Spanish for " portals") refers to an arcaded building that serves as a commercial complex. These are usually in rural towns and are located in the town's centre. The town ''plaza'' and ''iglesia'' are sometimes situated n ...
was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961Note: A National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination document should be available upon request from the National Park Service for this site, but it is not available on-line from thNPS Focus site
. and incorporated into the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.
Blackwater Draw Museum
The originaBlackwater Draw Museum
was first opened to the public in 1969, at 42987 Highway 70, Portales, New Mexico primarily to display artifacts uncovered at the Blackwater Locality No. 1 site. The artifacts and displays illustrated life at the site during the Clovis period (over 13,000 years ago) through the recent historic period. In 2017, the museum moved onto the Eastern New Mexico University (ENMU) campus, and expanded its focus to incorporate local history, as well as archaeology on a broad scale. Exhibits now include descriptions of archaeological work, different archaeological sites, cultural complexes, and scientific methods, among other topics. Visitors can learn more information about Blackwater Draw, archaeology, and see materials from the greater Southwest obtained from private collections. Currently, the Miles Collection displays Southwestern pottery, basketry, and textiles. As of August 2017, Blackwater Draw is under the direction of Dr. Brendon Asher of ENMU in
Portales
In Mexico, ''portales'' (Spanish for " portals") refers to an arcaded building that serves as a commercial complex. These are usually in rural towns and are located in the town's centre. The town ''plaza'' and ''iglesia'' are sometimes situated n ...
. The museum hired its first Collections Manager in 2020, Samantha Bomkamp.
The museum and site operate under the supervision of the Eastern New Mexico University'Department of Anthropology and Applied Archaeology
ENMU students are able to work at the museum and site as student employees, interns, or volunteers. Anthropology students regularly use museum collections for class projects, research, and master's theses. Both facilities host class visits from ENMU and K-12 year round.
See also
*Blanco Canyon
Blanco Canyon is a canyon located in the U.S. state of Texas. Eroded by the White River into the Caprock Escarpment on the east side of the Llano Estacado, the canyon runs for in a southeasterly direction, gradually widening from its beginning ...
*Blancan
The Blancan North American Stage on the geologic timescale is the North American faunal stage according to the North American Land Mammal Ages chronology (NALMA), typically set from 4,750,000 to 1,806,000 years Before Present, BP, a period of .
*Brazos River
The Brazos River ( , ), called the ''Río de los Brazos de Dios'' (translated as "The River of the Arms of God") by early Spanish explorers, is the 11th-longest river in the United States at from its headwater source at the head of Blackwater Dr ...
*Eastern New Mexico
Eastern New Mexico is a physiographic subregion within the U.S. state of New Mexico. The region is sometimes called the "High Plains," or "Eastern Plains (of New Mexico)," and was historically referred to as part of the "Great American Desert". The ...
*Llano Estacado
The Llano Estacado (), sometimes translated into English as the Staked Plains, is a region in the Southwestern United States that encompasses parts of eastern New Mexico and northwestern Texas. One of the largest mesas or tablelands on the North A ...
*Lubbock Lake Landmark
Lubbock Lake Landmark, also known as Lubbock Lake Site, is an important archeological site and natural history preserve in the city of Lubbock, Texas. The preserve is 336 acres and is a protected state and federal landmark. There is evidence of ...
*Lubbock Subpluvial Lubbock Subpluvial is a discredited paleoclimate theory about a wet period in early Holocene Texas and New Mexico. During this period, part of the Llano Estacado was supposedly covered with pine and spruce forest but later research has found that ve ...
* Mount Blanco
* North Fork Double Mountain Fork Brazos River
* Paleo-Indians
* Yellow House Draw
*National Register of Historic Places listings in Roosevelt County, New Mexico
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Roosevelt County, New Mexico.
This is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Roosevelt County, New Mex ...
* List of National Historic Landmarks in New Mexico
References
External links
Theclovissite.wordpress.com: ''Current research at the Blackwater Draw Clovis type site''
* * {{authority control Clovis sites Canyons and gorges of New Mexico Landforms of Roosevelt County, New Mexico Native American museums in New Mexico Archaeological museums in New Mexico Museums in Roosevelt County, New Mexico University museums in New Mexico Archaeological type sites Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in New Mexico Pre-Columbian archaeological sites Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in New Mexico History of Roosevelt County, New Mexico National Historic Landmarks in New Mexico Native American history of New Mexico Brazos River Llano Estacado National Register of Historic Places in Roosevelt County, New Mexico