Evaluative Testing of Sheep Ranching Site 5LA2316, 5LA2366, and 5LA2359 on the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site, Las Animas County, Colorado

摘要

In 2001, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs tested three sites on the Department of the Army's Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site in order to assess damage by tracked vehicles that breached protective fences around the sites during Army training maneuvers. All three sites were related to sheep ranching in the area between c. 1890 and c. 1910. 5LA2316 is the foundations of a substantial residential sheep ranch, complete with foundations of residential architecture and a cistern as well as other ranch outbuildings and features. 5LA2366 is a sheep camp with evidence of what might be more substantial residential features in the forms of a cistern and a dugout. The site displays a more extensive early occupation dating between c. 1870 and c. 1890, as well as the later occupation to c. 1910. 5LA2359 is a more ephemeral sheep camp. 5LA2316 and 5LA2366 retain archaeological research potential despite the adverse impacts of tracked vehicles, while 5LA2359 was reassessed in the field as having little further archaeological research value.