Archaeological finds being made despite millions of people having walked the shoreline since mid-1960s when the Pueblo Dam was built.
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More than a million fishermen, boaters, campers and hikers tramp along the shores of Lake Pueblo every year but even with all of that modern traffic, signs of earlier residents still exist.
That’s the finding of an ongoing archaeological survey of the reservoir’s shores to compare results with earlier work done in the mid-1960s before the dam was built.
Anne Whitfield, a member of the Pueblo Archaeological and Historical Society, is one of the local people working on the project and said, “It was shocking how much we were able to find.”
In one visit, she said, “we probably flagged 20 pieces of artifactual evidence, including flakes and small tools.”
The survey, conducted by the research firm Cultural Resource Analysts for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, got under way last fall but is now suspended until the weather improves, most likely in March. Workers such as Whitfield are paid a small per diem by the contractor to do the survey.
Michael Ketchen, another archaeological society member, said that more workers are needed. He said that those selected so far have been through the Program for Avocational Archaeological Certification offered by the Colorado Archaeological Society. Anyone interested, Ketchen said, should contact Ted Hoefer, vice president of operations with the contractor at 303-772-8881.
Whitfield said the effort has turned up both prehistoric and historic artifacts in areas that have seen heavy traffic since the lake was created.
“In one case, there was a gravel ramp for boats built right over a site and we still found artifacts,” she said.
It's also been a challenge for the workers, Whitfield added.
“I’ve probably done 20 surveys and this was the toughest I have ever done because of the Russian thistle and tamarisk that had grown profusely,” she said.
Whitfield, Ketchen and two other workers on the project, Mary Wallace and Karen Clouse, will give an update on their work at Thursday’s meeting of the archaeology society, 6:30 p.m. at the Southeastern Colorado Heritage Center, 201 W. B St. The meeting is open to the public. "
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Directory of cultural resource and historic preservation firms.
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