- Folsom Points - Terry Burton, Ft. Collins Museum & Discovery Ce
In 1934 archaeology changed the way we view the peopling of North America. Before then it was believed that the indigenous people of the Americas had only been here 3-4 thousand years, causing a bias that kept people from exploring any further ideas. But some archaeologist weren’t held back and when two amateur archaeologists found unusual projectile points on the Soapstone Prairie, north of Fort Collins, Colorado, things began to change.
Changed Perception of Paleoindians
According to Frank H.H. Roberts Jr. in an article on the Lindenmeier Site in the American Naturalist, July/August 1936, nine individual bison skeletons were found in an arroyo. In the vertebra of one of was a projectile point that proved that man had hunted there. The bones were dated at around 11,000 before present (BP). Lindenmeier provided archaeologists and anthropologists with a clearer look at the Folsom people.
At one time the life of an Ice Age man was thought to have been miserable, cold and barely subsistence, but Lindenmeier dispelled that idea. There appeared to be plentiful flora and fauna on the damp and cool meadow with a ready source of water and shelter. Found on the site were the oldest known beads in North America along with engraved bones and stones. It is almost certain that Folsom had time to create objects of art.
They found that the Folsom tool box contained a wider array of tools than first thought. Lindenmeier was not a kill camp but a winter living site. Over 5000 artifacts were excavated from the site, many not used for hunting. There were scrapers, awls, bone tools for making flaked points, hammer stones, delicate sewing needles and more.
Migrations of Folsom Man
Folsom also was a traveling culture. The materials found at many Folsom sites around Colorado are from areas across the state as well as the Alibates quarry in Texas, sites in New Mexico and also in Wyoming.
There are many Folsom kill sites found in the Animas Valley in Southern Colorado. And there is now some credence to the idea that Folsom migrated from winter to summer camps. Lindenmeier was thought to be a winter camp while the newly found Mountaineer Site, in the Gunnison area on the western slope, is thought to be a summer camp.
As more and more camps are found in the mountain valleys it is believed that the Folsom followed the herds of deer and elk in the mountains during the summer and then moved to the plains in the winter to hunt bison and stay in the more hospitable climate. The Mountaineer Site has produced living structures and possibly hearth sites. Other areas on the western slope are:
- Linger Site
- Stewarts’ Cattle Guard
- Black Mountain Site
- Upper Rio Grande Drainage and the San Luis Valley
- Barger Gulch
- Upper Twin Mountain in Middle Park.
Folsom, was not merely a hunter of bison. Animal bones found at Lindenmeier and other sites indicate that the Folsom at a variety of animals including fox, wolf, rabbit and antelope.
Folsom’s need for Social Organization
Hunting was a communal affair. Many Folsom sites are kill sites where bison were run over cliffs or bogged down in swamps. Sites like Olsen Chubbock and Twin Mountains Sites are such bison kills. Groups participated in the kills. When the hunt was finished it took a many to skin, butcher and preserve the large amounts meat. Then as is evidenced by the bone needles at Lindenmeier others sewed the hides into shelters, shoes and clothing.
Folsom was an organized society that worked together for their sustenance. There has also been some evidence that in places like Lindenmeier, Folsom also gathered berries, grains and roots to supplement the hunting. Scrapers have been found that were used to scrape roots and leaves.
A Touch with the Past Through the Present
Even with all the evidence we are unable to really know the people of the Folsom Culture but we do have a link to the past through the present. The Indian people of today carry with them the stories of a bygone tim, tales of a time when the snows never stopped, when strange animals walked the earth and when great floods happened as ice melted. These stories bring such places as the Soapstone Prairie to life.
The oral histories and languages of our Native people today link us to the past. As one stands in places like Mountaineer, Olsen Chubbock, or Lindenmeier you can hear the voices of a time long ago in the wind and the rustling of the prairie grass and pine trees. Folsom has opened our eyes to the ancient people of America.
Sources:
Martin, Brenda PhD., Bowell, Kate; Bower, Treloar Trednnick; Burton, Terry: “The Excavation of Lindenmeier, A Folsom Site Uncovered 1934-1940; Fort Collins Museum &Discovery Center
Roberts, Frank H.H. Jr. The American Naturalists, vol 70 #729 July Aug 1936, Accessed 8/23/10.
Stiger, Mark; American Antiquity, April 2006; “A Folsom Structure in the Colorado Mountains;”
Lee Ann Forrester - I discovered writing and history as a passion in high school. I became a published author my junior year with two poems published in a ...
