Chapter 1. Valles Caldera National Preserve land use history

Abstract

The land use history of the Valles Caldera National Preserve (VCNP) extends back over thousands of years. Few known archaeological properties in the Valles Caldera date to the Paleoindian period (10000/9500–5500 B.C.). These finds include the recent discovery, during ongoing archaeological studies (Dr. Bob Parmeter, personal communication, VCNP, Los Alamos, 2005), of several spear points that associate with soils dated at 11,000 years before present. In addition, there is wide distribution of Jémez obsidian across the northern Southwest from archaeological sites dating to the late Pleistocene and the early Holocene. These patterns document that hunters of now-extinct large game animals, such as mammoth (Mammuthus jeffersonii) and a kind of bison (Bison antiquus), were the first people to visit the calderas.

Parent Publication

• More than a scenic mountain landscape: Valles Caldera National Preserve land use history

Citation

Anschuetz, Kurt F. 2007. Chapter 1. Valles Caldera National Preserve land use history. In: Anschuetz, Kurt F.; Merlan, Thomas. More than a scenic mountain landscape: Valles Caldera National Preserve land use history. Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-196. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. p. 1-10.