Chris Clearwaters
We were classmates for four years. We were friends and brothers. We went to war together. You did not come home. Your sacrifices helped me come home. Even after forty years I still think about you often. You Wore The Ring.
Rest in Peace.
In the project description dates are listed B.P. That stands for Before Present.
Hudson-Meng Excavation 2010
NE-3936
June 7–13, 15–20, 22–27, 29–July 6, 2010 (including weekends)
Must commit to one full session; may participate in more
Passport In Time volunteers are invited to excavate at the Hudson-Meng site, located in northwestern Nebraska. Research at Hudson-Meng in the 1970s identified a Paleoindian bison kill site associated with the Alberta culture, dated to over 10,000 years ago. Subsequent research (1990s) suggested that more than a single "kill event" may have been responsible for the formation of the initial site, and identified what appeared to be a second cultural component over the main bone bed. Investigations from 2005-2007 identified this second component as Paleoindian and belonging to the Eden culture (ca. 9400-9000 B.P.). Further research suggests there is also a third cultural component above the Eden level. The recognition of two additional Paleoindian levels above the original bison bone bed raises a host of new research questions and opens the door to exciting new discoveries about how ancient people lived in the Hudson-Meng valley.
Volunteers at Hudson-Meng will have opportunities to participate in the excavations, work in the lab, or even be involved in a variety of interpretive programs at the site. Excavation will occur primarily along the southern edge of the bone bed, at a second location to its southeast, and inside the enclosure building. Volunteers interested in lab work will be processing screen samples. The samples contain small fragments of artifacts: bone, snail shells, charcoal, and seeds. All will need to be sorted from the larger matrix of calcium carbonate fragments. The data provided from the project is absolutely crucial to understanding the history of human occupation, site formation, and changes in local environment that occurred at Hudson-Meng. Join us this summer for another exploration of the Hudson-Meng site!
Number of openings: 24 (6 per session)
Special skills: Excavators must be able to kneel for long periods, climb ladders, and work in hot outdoor conditions; Lab technicians must be able to see small details and be able to sit for long periods of time; prior excavation, archaeological interpretation, and/or lab experience helpful, but not required
Minimum age: 18 years old
Facilities: Tent and RV camping on site at developed campground; field kitchen; restroom with showers and flush toilets; drinking water; limited electrical and water hookups available; volunteers responsible for camping equipment, food, and transportation; volunteers may also elect to participate in a communal food budget ($10/person/day) and share in cooking/kitchen-duty rotations
Nearest towns: Crawford, 17 miles; Chadron, 37 miles
Thanks for visiting.
The wind thankfully calmed down today….for most of the day. As I write this however, it has picked back up to 35-40 mph. I guess I’m not going to be able to grill that steak I was planning on having for dinner tonight!
I did not however, go looking for them.
The last few days have been relaxed and interesting. The weather has settled down a bit and we’re on a warming trend. The forecast calls for mid 80’s today and mid 90’s tomorrow with just a small chance of rain or severe weather.
I arrived in early afternoon and was told that I could take the Camp Host site which is nice because it’s the only site with both electric and water in the entire campground. The Host has not taken up residence yet for the summer season. The campground sits right below the dam for the reservoir and it’s an eerie feeling to look up from a camping spot and realize that there is almost 100 feet of water just on the other side of that wall…over your head.
Two weeks ago I posted that I had a long hard week of it while our new countertops were being installed. Readers will remember that a plumbing leak did damage to the wood floors at that time. I had a week to recover and enjoy a Forest Service, Passport In Time project in New Mexico and returned a week ago. This past week was consumed by the flooring contractor sanding and re-finishing the wood floor and then after he was done the carpet cleaner came to do the carpets in the house.
The floor guy took two days to do his stuff and during that time the kitchen was off limits. I managed to put a few food items in the small bar refrigerator in the basement and that took care of breakfast and lunch for me. The Bride and The Emmer picked up eats for breakfast and lunch at their respective work places. Dinner was at the local Ruby Tuesday’s.
The worst part of having the floor re-done was the smell that permeated the entire house after the first, sealer coat was applied to the floor at the end of the first day. It was a heavy solvent smell that gave me a headache even with the windows open. Had I known how bad the smell was going to be I might have made arrangements to sleep in the RV that night. Fortunately, on the second day the water based finish coats were installed and that neutralized the smell. The floor guy finished up late Tuesday and the carpet cleaners weren’t scheduled until Friday so I had two days “off”.
Thurdsay afternoon I took it for a spin at a local park that I had detected before with my old detector. I had found a few coins with the old detector but it was tough going and for every coin I found, I dug up 5-6 pop tops or other assorted trash. The new detector was amazing. Within one hour I had dug up 13 coins and very few pieces of trash. Yesterday afternoon I went back to the same park and spent a half hour detecting before the rain chased me away. In that time I found another four coins. I’m looking forward to getting to some older sites now and finding some interesting old stuff!
Thursday was also furniture moving day in preparation for the carpet cleaner. As I was moving the furniture around I thought about how nice it would be to be finished with all of this “house work” and getting back to normal. I think “normal” has been postponed because when the carpet guy did his thing on Friday he told me that the two year old carpet was in need of re-stretching. When we had the carpet installed two years ago they made it a point to point out that their guarantee covered any re-stretching needed during the life of the carpet….I guess they knew they weren’t going to do the job properly to start with. So after my trip next week volunteering for the Colorado Division of Wildlife, I guess more “house work” will be on the schedule.
In a few minutes The Bride and I will be leaving to pick up Ladder Lady at the airport. She will stay with us for a few days and then she and The Bride are going to California to visit with our daughter, Cajenn. When they return, The Emmer will accompany Ladder Lady back to North Carolina and visit with here there for a week before returning to the Denver area.
Thanks for visiting.
Your worn out friend,
his-self
Happy Mothers Day! I would not be what I am without you….
Thanks for visiting.
It’s Friday evening and the Old Spanish Trail project ended at about 3pm this afternoon. For the three days since my last report we have been tramping around sage brush plains and Ponderosa Pine forests searching for any evidence of the Old Spanish Trail. This particular piece of the trail was used between 1694 and the mid 1800’s but it’s exact location is yet unknown. Oh, we have a pretty good idea of the general area but the specific piece of ground that served as the historic “Interstate” remains elusive.
Three days and we probably searched about 4 square miles. We had no problem finding evidence of 100+ year old logging operations and even older railroad crews cutting trees for railroad ties. The area is also littered with prehistoric Native American rock tools, arrowheads and flakes but evidence of human activities in the 1694-1860 time frame were almost non-existent. I say “almost” because today, the last day of the project, we had the find of the week. One of the group located a Spanish spur rowel. The rowel is the round thing at the back of the spur and the design of this piece is relatively easy to place and sometimes date. The rowel that we found today is definitely a Spanish design and it is hand forged so it’s pretty old. How old exactly can’t be determined without some laboratory work.
The other artifact we found that possibly is of the target time period is a piece of a metal arrowhead. Originally the Native Americans made stone arrowheads. After contact with the Europeans, the Native Americans obtained metal and made metal arrowheads. Later still, they acquired firearms but the metal arrowheads were used from the 1700’s to the mid 1800’s. Take a good look at the picture above. Now consider that 20 people searched about 4 square miles and found these two pretty small artifacts buried in the ground…Amazing!
We worked hard but the sheer beauty of the country made the trekking and digging and wind very worth while. Did I say wind? Yesterday the wind blew HARD. Hard enough to knock you off balance if you weren’t paying attention. The weather shamans said that there were gusts of up to 50 mph and this time I believe them. The Ponderosa Pine forest helped dent the wind somewhat and some of the time it was warm enough that I stripped down to a T-shirt. The wind could not dull the smell of the sagebrush. The wind could not lessen the beauty of the blossoming Pasque flower. In short, the wind was a minor inconvenience in an incredibly beautiful place. 
Metal detecting is hard work. It’s more intense than just walking and looking at the ground. You swing the detector left and right while walking and listening for the magical beep that means you need to get on your knees and start digging.. Swinging takes energy and muscle power that I don’t/didn’t have to last the whole day. I kept it up however, and after six hours of swinging I had a pretty sore arm, (note to self: need to exercise arms more!) but the experience of holding an artifact in your hand that a person, a human, held in his or her hands 100 years or more ago in the same exact spot is …is…I don’t know how to describe it. It’s almost religious.
OK, getting too deep here. It was a wonderful week. I had the opportunity to explore an area of the country that I had never seen before. I was able to meet a lot of great people including a teacher from Australia, a retired Naval aviator, a policeman from California and a lot of other retired folks like myself. We didn’t find positive proof of the trail we were searching for, but we helped the Forest Service narrow the search somewhat. I’m hoping that the Forest Service will repeat this project next year because I really think we were close to finding that positive proof. If they do repeat the project you can bet that my name will be on the application list.
Here’s some more pics of the trip……
I’m home for a week then it’s off to John Martin Reservoir to work with the Colorado Division of Wildlife but more on that later….
Thanks for visiting.
Tuesday evening and I’m back in the trailer after a great day of trying to find the west fork of the north branch of the Old Spanish Trail, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself.
Sunday morning promptly at 8 am I pulled out of the Denver area, headed for Tres Piedras, NM. The weather forecast was for afternoon rain and/or snow. I was hoping to get to Tres Piedras before any precipitation started…Not! I did make it south to Walsenburg, CO and across the only mountain pass I would have to negotiate (La Veta Pass) before the precipitation started and when it started, it started as snow! Not only was it snow but it was snowing pretty hard. Great, just what I needed!
I pulled into Alamosa, CO and decided that I had better fill up my water tanks before I got to Tres Piedras so I went to the Alamosa KOA and for $5.00 I took on about 90 gallons of water. As it turns out, this was a good decision because although there is a water spigot here, it is almost inaccessible. I also filled up with diesel at the Alamosa Safeway and with my frequent buyer discount saved over 20 cents a gallon from the cost at the other local stations.
From Alamosa I headed south on Hwy 285 for another 53 miles to the desolate town of Tres Piedras. This town truly is a “frontier” town. The only service in Tres Piedras is a US Post Office. There are no restaurants. There are no grocery stores. There are no stores of any description. To get groceries or gasoline you have to drive over 30 miles to Antonito, Co or to Taos, NM.
Of the 20 some people that are participating in this project only three of us are staying here at the historic Adolph Leopold Ranger House….the others prefer a bit more civilization. It’s quite scenic and because we start from here every morning I get to sleep a bit longer than those that are staying in Taos.
We have spent two days in the field metal detecting large areas of sage brush high plains and Ponderosa Pine covered hills searching for anything that would confirm that these areas were used between 1649 and 1850. No luck so far. We’ve turned up some artifacts related to logging around the turn of the 20th Century and we’ve seen numerous prehistoric lithic sites but very strangely nothing in between. Our general strategy is to detect along an east/west axis, perpendicular to the historical route of travel. If we can intersect evidence of the trail somewhere then we will try to follow it.
Even though we haven’t found anything of significance, I’m still having a great time. The weather has cleared and it’s warm although windy. The country is absolutely gorgeous and it’s one of those times I can feel that deep down inside smile in my body……More to come.
Thanks for visiting.
