Dolores Archaeological Program Technical Reports, DAP-022: A Brief View of Homesteading in the Primary Project Area with a Test Model of the Basic Homesteading Periods

This report summarizes the results obtained in the first year of historical studies on the Dolores Archaeological Program in Montezuma and Dolores counties in southwestern Colorado. The investigations were performed by Centuries Research, Inc., of Montrose, Colorado, under terms of a subcontract with the University of Colorado. This report presents two introductory historical research reports on the documentary history of the area by Duane Smith and the results of Steven Baker's historic site inventory and evaluation and initial studies of the homesteading traditions in the Dolores region. The results of these efforts are framed in terms of both the research design which has guided efforts to date and the history and progress of the first year's program. Recommendations on site significance and further research needs are made.

An intensive archaeological survey inventoried 12 historic sites in the approximately 2,000 acres of the first-year impact areas. In addition to these resources, two additional sites were entered into the historic site inventory and recorded in a preliminary manner. These were the townsites of Big Bend (5MT4572) and McPhee (5MT4571). The other historic sites are mostly agricultural homesteads. These homesteads represent four different homesteading periods that date as early as the 1800s and as late as the 1950s. All together these sites constitute part of an important resource base for historical archaeological studies of the history and evolution of the American homesteading tradition in western Colorado. This resource base will undoubtedly be expanded during future survey efforts and should become a particularly powerful data base for the study of homesteading in the marginal agricultural environments of western Colorado. For these reasons it is herein recommended that the Anasazi Archaeological District be amended to include historical Euro-American resources as well as aboriginal ones. As will be discussed, there are particular advantages for cultural resource management and scientific inquiry in such an approach.