Yuma County Colorado Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Wray Highlighted

The Jones-Miller Bison Kill Site, located in northeast Colorado, was a Paleo-Indian site where

Bison antiquus ''Bison antiquus'', the antique bison or ancient bison, is an extinct species of bison that lived in Late Pleistocene North America until around 10,000 years ago. It was one of the most common large herbivores on the North American continent dur ...

were killed using a

game drive system The game drive system is a hunting strategy in which game are herded into confined or dangerous places where they can be more easily killed. It can also be used for animal capture as well as for hunting, such as for capturing mustangs. The use of ...

and butchered. Hell Gap complex bones and tools artifacts at the site are

carbon dated Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was dev ...

from about ca. 8000-8050 BC.

Geography

The Jones-Miller site is located in

Yuma County, Colorado Yuma County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 9,988. The county seat is Wray. Geography According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and ...

, 10 miles from the town of

Laird Laird () is the owner of a large, long-established Scottish estate. In the traditional Scottish order of precedence, a laird ranked below a baron and above a gentleman. This rank was held only by those lairds holding official recognition in ...

in the Republican River basin.Wedel, p. 65. The grassland site is located at a deep

draw Draw, drawing, draws, or drawn may refer to: Common uses * Draw (terrain), a terrain feature formed by two parallel ridges or spurs with low ground in between them * Drawing (manufacturing), a process where metal, glass, or plastic or anything ...

that drains into an

Arikaree River The Arikaree River is a river in the central Great Plains of North America. It lies mostly in the American state of Colorado, draining land between the North and South Forks of the Republican River, and it flows into the North Fork in Nebraska a ...

tributary.

History

Background

Within the

Denver Basin The Denver Basin, variously referred to as the Julesburg Basin, Denver-Julesburg Basin (after Julesburg, Colorado), or the D-J Basin, is a geologic structural basin centered in eastern Colorado in the United States, but extending into southeast W ...

, prehistoric time periods are traditionally identified as: Paleo-Indian, Archaic and Ceramic (Woodland) periods. The Denver basin is a geological definition of a portion of the

Colorado Piedmont The Colorado Piedmont is an area along the base of the foothills of the Front Range in north central Colorado in the United States. The region consists of a broad hilly valley, just under 5000 ft (1500 m) in elevation, stretching north and northe ...

from

Colorado Springs Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...

Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to the s ...

and west to

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to th ...

and

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...

. The

Palmer Divide Named after Colorado Springs founder William Jackson Palmer, the Palmer Divide is a caprock escarpment style ridge in central Colorado that separates the Arkansas River basin from the South Platte basin. It extends from the Front Range of the R ...

, with elevations from 6,000 to 7,500, is a subsection of that area that separates the

South Platte River The South Platte River is one of the two principal tributaries of the Platte River. Flowing through the U.S. states of Colorado and Nebraska, it is itself a major river of the American Midwest and the American Southwest/ Mountain West. It ...

watershed from that of the

Arkansas River The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. It generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's source basin lies in the western United Stat ...

. It runs perpendicular to the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico ...

and divides the

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

metropolitan area from the southern Pikes Peak area. The period immediately preceding the first humans coming into Colorado was the

Ice Age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gre ...

Summer of about 16,000 years ago. Large mammals, such as the

mastodon A mastodon ( 'breast' + 'tooth') is any proboscidean belonging to the extinct genus ''Mammut'' (family Mammutidae). Mastodons inhabited North and Central America during the late Miocene or late Pliocene up to their extinction at the end of th ...

mammoth A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus'', one of the many genera that make up the order of trunked mammals called proboscideans. The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks an ...

camelops ''Camelops''Being occasionally called ''Western Camel'' or ''Yesterday's Camel''. is an extinct genus of camels that lived in North and Central America, ranging from Alaska to Guatemala, from the middle Pliocene to the end of the Pleistocene. It ...

, giant

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 l ...

cheetah The cheetah (''Acinonyx jubatus'') is a large cat native to Africa and central Iran. It is the fastest land animal, estimated to be capable of running at with the fastest reliably recorded speeds being , and as such has evolved specialized ...

bison antiquus ''Bison antiquus'', the antique bison or ancient bison, is an extinct species of bison that lived in Late Pleistocene North America until around 10,000 years ago. It was one of the most common large herbivores on the North American continent dur ...

and horses roamed the land. There were a few Paleo-Indian cultures, distinctive by the size of the tools they used and the animals they hunted. People in the first Paleo-Indian period, the Clovis complex period, had large tools to hunt the megafauna animals.Waldman, 5. By 11,000 years ago (9,000 BC), the climate warmed and lakes and savannas receded. The land became drier, food became less abundant, and as a result of the giant animals became extinct. Receding and melting glaciers created the Plum and Monument Creeks, created the Castle Rock mesas and unburied the

. People adapted by hunting smaller mammals and gathering wild plants to supplement their diet.Griffin-Pierce, p. 130. A new cultural complex was born, the Folsom tradition, with smaller projectile points to hunt smaller animals. Aside from hunting smaller mammals, people adapted by gathering wild plants to supplement their diet. The Lindenmeier site, the largest known Paleo-Indian Folsom site,Gantt, 1. contained artifacts of the Paleo-Indians who lived and hunted in the present Fort Collins area approximately 11,000 years ago. Some of the artifacts are identified from people of the

Folsom tradition The Folsom Complex is a Paleo-Indian archaeological culture that occupied much of central North America from c. 8500 BCE to c. 4000 BCE. The term was first used in 1927 by Jesse Dade Figgins, director of the Colorado Museum of Natural History. ...

, named for the

Folsom site Folsom site or Wild Horse Arroyo, designated by the Smithsonian trinomial 29CX1, is a major archaeological site about west of Folsom, New Mexico. It is the type site for the Folsom tradition, a Paleo-Indian cultural sequence dating to between ...

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...

, and identified as such by the

Folsom point Folsom points are projectile points associated with the Folsom tradition of North America. The style of tool-making was named after the Folsom site located in Folsom, New Mexico, where the first sample was found in 1908 by George McJunkin within t ...

s used for hunting the large, now extinct

. They likely also gathered food in the area, such as seeds, nuts and seasonal fruits. They were

nomad A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the po ...

ic people, following the bison herds, and camping many places each year.''Local History Archive.''

Paleo-Indian Folsom site

Robert Jones, Jr., a rancher in the Wray, Colorado area, found bones and

projectile point In North American archaeological terminology, a projectile point is an object that was hafted to a weapon that was capable of being thrown or projected, such as a javelin, dart, or arrow. They are thus different from weapons presumed to have ...

s near his home in 1972. Jack Miller, a local anthropologist, performed a test site excavation and found bones and Paleo-Indian artifacts. Dennis Stanford, an archaeologist at the Smithsonian Institution, was contacted and a full-scale excavation of the Jones Miller site was performed between 1973 and 1978Cassells, p. 79. of what is primarily a bison kill site. Waldo Rudolph Wedel said in 1986 that it was the "most carefully studied bison kill" site. Draw javorinky

Archaeologists learned how early native people may have hunted large prey from the artifacts at the Jones-Miller site. Remains of 300 bison were found in an arroyo, or

, above the

basin. It was believed that the bison were strategically driven into an area difficult for the bison to traverse and easier to kill on three occasions. Because many of the animals were nursing calves, it is estimated that the kills occurred in late fall or winter.''Folsom Traditions 9,000 - 8,000 BC.'' The bones from the bison kill were piled into many stacks, indicating that there were several butcher sites.Gibbon, Ames, p. 401. Artifacts found at the site include Hell Gap complex

s and flakes, knives, scrapers and tools made of bone. While there is little evidence to determine the extent to which Paleo-Indians practiced religion, artifacts grouped together at the Jones-Miller site are like that of historic northern Plains people's medicine post ceremony where, among the bison bones were placed a projectile point, dog remains and an antler flute. The practice is similar to that of the Cree and

Assiniboine people The Assiniboine or Assiniboin people ( when singular, Assiniboines / Assiniboins when plural; Ojibwe: ''Asiniibwaan'', "stone Sioux"; also in plural Assiniboine or Assiniboin), also known as the Hohe and known by the endonym Nakota (or Nakod ...

. The site is dated at 10,020 +/- 320 years before present, or about 8000 BC. It is the only Hell Gap (Wyoming) site in Colorado.

Collection

The collection of artifacts from the

Smithsonian Institution 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 ...

's excavation in the 1970s was donated to the

Denver Museum of Nature and Science The Denver Museum of Nature & Science is a municipal natural history and science museum in Denver, Colorado. It is a resource for informal science education in the Rocky Mountain region. A variety of exhibitions, programs, and activities help mus ...

in 1997. The collection, called the "Jones-Miller Hell Gap Bison Kill Site Collection," contains bison bones, projectile points and stone tools.Colwell, Nash, Holen, PT75.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* Buccholtz, C.W. (1997) [1983
''Rocky Mountain National Park: Tales, Trails and Tribes.''
University Press of Colorado. Retrieved 9-19-2011. * Cassells, E. Steve. (1997) [1983] ''The Archaeology of Colorado.'' Boulder: Johnson Press. . * Colwell, Chip; Nash, Stephen E.; Holen, Steven R. (2010) ''Crossroads of Culture: Anthropology Collections of the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.'' Boulder: University Press of Colorado.
''Folsom Traditions 9,000 - 8,000 BC.''
Manitoba Archaeological Society. 1998. Retrieved 9-28-2011. * Gantt, Erik M

Colorado State University. Retrieved 9-19-2011. * Gibbon, Guy E.; Ames, Kenneth M
''Archaeology of Prehistoric Native America: An Encyclopedia''.
1998. . * Griffin-Pierce, Trudy. (2010)
''The Columbia Guide to American Indians of the Southwest.''
New York:Columbia University Press. . * Johnson, Kirk R.; Raynolds, Robert G. (2006). "Ancient Denvers: Scenes from the Past 300 Million Years of the Colorado Front Range". Fulcrum Publishing for Denver Museum of Nature and Science. . * Kipfer, Barbara Ann. (2000)
''Encyclopedic Dictionary of Archaeology.''
New York:Plenum Publisher. .

(partial transcription of September 1, 1980 recorded talk) Fort Collins Public Library. Retrieved 10-15-2007. * Nelson, Michael; Laubach, Tony

The Denver Channel. October 27, 2009. Retrieved 9-28-2011. * Nelson, Sarah M. (2008). ''Denver: An Archaeological History.'' Boulder, CO: University Press of Colorado. . * Wedel, Waldo Rudolph. (1986) ''Central Plains Prehistory: Holocene Environments and Culture Change in the Republican River Basin.'' University of Nebraska Press. .