New Acquisitions

As the only national non-profit organization that acquires endangered archaeological sites, The Archaeological Conservancy has preserved more than 385 sites across the country. Below are some of the Conservancy's most recent projects.

Gault (Texas)

Located along a creek in Central Texas near the eastern edge of the Edwards Plateau, the Gault site has yielded a dense concentration of artifacts indicating intermittent human occupation spanning more than 13,000 years.  Gault is one of the largest and most prolific Clovis sites in America and it has yielded considerable evidence that challenges the notion that Clovis was the first American culture.

Archaeologist Michael Collins has investigated the site since 1991, and he founded the non-profit Gault School of Archaeological Research to ensure future research at, and public interpretation of, the site. Early last year, Collins purchased a major portion of Gault and recently donated it to the Conservancy for permanent preservation.

Puzzle House (Colorado)

It can be hard to imagine that what are now mounds of sandstone rubble amidst plowed fields were once thriving prehistoric settlements. But these ruins are in fact what remain of the Puzzle House Archaeological Community. The Conservancy holds an option to purchase 154 acres containing the well-preserved ruins of this extensive community in southwest Colorado, which dates from A.D. 650 to 1250. There are several major pueblos, field houses, and other associated activity areas, and three to five prehistoric road segments connecting these outlying settlements with Lowry Pueblo’s monumental Great Kiva and Great House. Lowry Pueblo, a National Historic Landmark within the Bureau of Land Management’s Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, is considered by researchers to be one of the most significant archaeological resources in the Southwest.

Upper Leibhart (Pennsylvania)

First mapped by Europeans in 1670, the Upper Leibhart site is a Susquehannock village situated on a hilltop overlooking the Susquehanna River in southeast Pennsylvania. Occupied from 1650 to 1675, the site may have been home to as many as 1,200 people at its peak, and it is believed to be one of the last major villages inhabited by the Susquehannocks prior to their defeat by the Iroquois around 1675.
           

Various Native American artifacts as well as European items such as pottery, glass trade beads, gunflints, kaolin pipes, and gun parts were discovered at the site. In addition, a variety of Early and Middle Woodland period ceramics dating from 3,000 to 1,000 years ago have been found. One unique burial contained a complete Point Peninsula period (500 B.C. to A.D. 800) pottery vessel as well as a birdstone of banded slate, a cache of blades, and disc shell beads.  Consequently, in addition to the Susquehannock village, the site has tremendous research potential concerning earlier occupations.

Culture and Time Period: Susquehannock, Contact period A.D. 1650-1675

Status: The site is threatened by residential development.

Acquisition: The Conservancy needs to raise $100,000 by December 1, 2008.

How you can help: Please send contributions to The Archaeological Conservancy, Attn: Upper Leibhart, 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902, Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517

Wancura-Johnson (Colorado)

The Conservancy has negotiated an option to purchase the Wancura-Johnson site, a Pueblo I and early Pueblo II village in southwest Colorado. The site was occupied during a time when the people in the heart of the Mesa Verde region were migrating to other areas, including Chaco Canyon. While these migrations were occurring, residents of Wancura-Johnson chose not to move from the region.
The site is unlike many others in southwestern Colorado. For example, other large sites, such as the Conservancy’s James A. Lancaster Preserve, were occupied for long periods of time and developed complex community interactions evidenced by the construction of large multi-story architectural units grouped near great house-like structures. The structures could include a number of ceremonial rooms and circular tower features. The earlier occupations were buried under later and larger ones.

Culture and Time Period: Pueblo I and early Pueblo II, A.D. 880-980

Status: The site is located in a rapidly developing rural residential area.

Acquisition: The Archaeological Conservancy has an option to purchase the site. The purchase price and the costs of developing management and public education programs is $121,000.

How you can help: Please send contributions to The Archaeological Conservancy, Attn: Wancura-Johnson, 5301 Central Ave. NE, Suite 902, Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517.

Flaming Arrow (North Dakota)

Archaeologists have known about the Flaming Arrow site, which is located about 40 miles north of Bismarck on the east bank of the Missouri River, since the 1940s. A limited excavation took place there in 1983, and geophysical surveys in 1997 documented the subterranean features of the approximately three-acre site without disturbing the archaeological deposits.

Flaming Arrow, which dates to about A.D. 1100, is the Conservancy’s second preserve in North Dakota. Archaeologists classify it as an Initial Plains Village Tradition site, and it was inhabited by the ancestors of the historic period Mandan and Hidatsa nations. The Mandan and Hidatsa still reside along the Missouri River in central North Dakota, and are perhaps best known for their role in the Lewis and Clark Expedition, which spent the winter of 1804 and ‘05 in this area.

Ely Mound (Virginia)

The Ely Mound site is situated near Rose Hill, in Lee County, Virginia, and sits on a gentle slope near a small stream, with the Cumberland Mountain and Cumberland Gap National Historic Park appearing as a dramatic backdrop to the northwest. The Ely Mound is one of only two remaining examples of a Mississippian platform mound that remains standing in the state of Virginia.
           

Dating to the Mississippian Period (A.D. 1100 to 1500), this rare and important site was tested in the 1870s by Lucien Carr, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983, and acquired by the Conservancy in early October. According to State Archaeologist Michael Barber, “The site is legendary in Virginia archaeology and it was one of the first sites I was made aware of in that first introductory class to archaeology 30 some years ago.  It is unique and has always been a concern due to its extreme importance.” The mound and its associated occupation could offer information concerning the development of complex societies in southwestern Virginia during the Late Woodland/Mississippian period, and the interactions of these societies with groups in North Carolina and Tennessee.

Carson Mounds (Mississippi)

In his 1894 Bureau of Ethnology publication on the mounds of the Eastern United States, Cyrus Thomas published a map of the Carson Mounds site in northwestern Mississippi that included more than 80 mounds. At the height of its occupation during the Mississippian Period (ca. A.D. 1000- 1500), Carson was second in size to Cahokia, the huge Mississippian city in southwest Illinois.

While the exact boundaries of this enormous site are unknown, it is estimated that it is one mile in length from east to west and half a mile north and south. Much of the site has been destroyed over the years, and the Conservancy has recently acquired four of Carson’s six remaining mounds using emergency POINT funds.

Jeffrey Rockshelter and Village (Virginia)

Located on the Potomac River in Loudoun County in northern Virginia, the Jeffrey Rockshelter contains the remains of over 10,000 years of human activity. A few hundred yards from the rockshelter sits Jeffrey Village, an equally ancient site. Both of these sites are part of the Conservancy’s newest preserve in Virginia.

The Jeffrey Rockshelter was first investigated in the 1960s and ‘70s by the Archaeological Society of Virginia. These excavations produced a large amount of data, including hearths, postmolds, projectile points, bone, and fragments of steatite and ceramic vessels. The Jeffrey Village site was first identified in 1937 by Richard Slattery. Between 1964 and 1975, the Archaeological Society of Virginia conducted surface collections that recovered over 10,000 artifacts spanning 10,000 years.

Aurora Colony Hotel (Oregon)

The collaboration between a conservation-minded California investment firm, an Oregon archeologist, and the Conservancy has resulted in the preservation of the Aurora Colony Hotel site. The town of Aurora, Oregon is one of the historical gems of the Pacific Northwest. Situated within a veritable agricultural Eden midway between Salem and Portland, Aurora boasts 20 sites listed on the National Register Historic Places.

There were a number of 19th-century utopian communities, such as the Shaker and the Oneida, in the Eastern United States, but the Aurora Colony was the only utopian settlement on the West Coast. William Keil founded the Aurora Colony on the same principles—the members of Keil’s colony worked and lived together, and shared all property—that made his first community in Bethel, Missouri a success. With the Bethel community flourishing, Keil decided to start another. In 1853, Keil sent members of his Bethel Colony on the Oregon Trail with instructions to find a suitable home for a satellite community in the Oregon Territory. In 1856, Keil settled his colony in the Willamette Valley in northwest Oregon.

Miller Grove (Illinois)

Around 1845, a number of Tennessee slaveholders, experiencing a change of heart, released their slaves. These freed slaves took up residence at Miller Grove, in the southeastern portion of the free state of Illinois, where their former owners purchased land for them.

In many ways, Miller Grove was a typical 19th-century Midwest community. It comprised a number of dispersed farmsteads focused on small-scale, mixed agriculture. The principle crops were wheat, corn, beans, peas, and tobacco. Cattle, sheep, and horses were kept in small numbers, and butter was made to be sold at market. The community was centered on its church, which also served as its schoolhouse.

Miller Grove is unusual in that it was created mainly by freed slaves who managed to establish and maintain an independent community in a time of great racial oppression. It’s also thought to have been a stop on the Underground Railroad, as might be expected given the racial make-up of the community and its location only 12 miles from the slave-state of Kentucky.

Avenue (Oregon)

Seaside lies at the southern end of massive sand dunes on Oregon’s north coast known as the Clatsop Plains. Four thousand years ago people settled this area, establishing three major villages. The Conservancy has recently acquired a portion of one of those villages, known as the Avenue site.

The site was first recorded in the early 1950s by archaeologist Lloyd Collins, and in the 1960s it was investigated by amateur archaeologists. Tom Connolly, a University of Oregon archaeologist, evaluated and mapped the site in 1988. He returned there in 2002 with another University of Oregon archaeologist, Guy Tasa, at the request of the Oregon Department of Transportation to conduct test excavations in advance of a proposed highway relocation project.

Their investigations revealed cultural deposits over five feet in depth. The recovered artifacts included projectile points, bifaces, dentalium beads, fishing gorges, and bone whistle fragments. Their data indicated that the Avenue site was first occupied around 2000 B.C.

Troyville (Louisiana)

The Conservancy has acquired part of Troyville, a mound group that was once believed to have been largely destroyed. Named for the 18th-century plantation on which it was located, Troyville was situated at the confluence of the Tensas, Ouachita, and Little rivers. It is the type-site for the Troyville culture and dates to approximately A.D. 600.

Troyville’s large, elaborate, platform mounds were presumably used for public rituals or ceremonies. The earliest descriptions of Troyville indicate it held as few as six and as many as 12 mounds, but all accounts agree that the site was dominated by what was called the Great Mound, which stood approximately 80 feet high and consisted of three levels—two rectangular mounds, crowned by a conical mound. The Great Mound was surrounded by smaller mounds ranging in heights from 12 to 20 feet. Troyville also had an embankment on its southern and western sides.

Lathrop (California)

The Lathrop site, in central California’s San Joaquin County, was occupied during the late prehistoric period. The site consists of a small mound of midden deposits that lies beneath an abandoned house and garage at the edge of a walnut orchard.
           

When the owners of the house, which was built in 1906, decided to dig a basement, they uncovered ancient remains. The site was recorded by archaeologist James Bennyhoff of the University of California, Berkeley in 1958. He noted the remains, but somehow failed to note the midden. In 1993, Eric Wohlgemuth, an archaeologist with Far Western Anthropological Research Group, Inc., mapped, surveyed, and re-recorded the site in advance of a proposed commercial and residential development covering some 6,000 acres.
 

Wohlgemuth found numerous objects, such as beads, stone tools, projectile points, bear claws, and clam disk beads. His data indicate that the Chulamni tribe of the Northern Valley Yokuts, inhabited the vicinity in historical times, and may have occupied the site after A. D. 1500.

New Philadelphia (Illinois)

In 1836, New Philadelphia became the first town established by a free African American. It flourished until the new railroad bypassed it in 1869, at which point its population declined, and the town reverted to agricultural use over the following decades.

The Conservancy is partnering with the New Philadelphia Association (NPA), a local non-profit organization formed to protect the historical site. The Conservancy is purchasing about nine of the 42 acres.
           

Archaeologists, historians, and descendants and local community members are especially interested in this town because of its multi-racial nature. In 2009, the town was designated a National Historic Landmark, the highest recognition given to a cultural resource by the federal government. The Conservancy’s acquisition “will greatly assist in conserving this exceptional historical resource and further facilitating future development of New Philadelphia,” said Chris Fennell, an archaeologist from the University of Illinois who has investigated the site.

Time Period: Historic. 1800s

Acquisition: TheConservancy needs to raise $50,000 to acquire nine acres of the site and maintain it.

How you can help: Please send contributions to The Archaeological Conservancy, Attn: New Philadelphia Archaeological Site, 5301 Central Ave., NE, Suite 902, Albuquerque, NM 87108-1530.

MacHaffie (Montana)

The MacHaffie site has yielded evidence of Paleo-Indian occupation dating back to the Folsom period more than 12,000 years ago. It contains a Scottsbluff component dating to approximately 10,000 years ago, and it was also used off and on by Middle and Late Archaic hunter-gatherers dating from 7,000 to about 2000 years ago. MacHaffie became the Conservancy’s first preserve in Montana last June, when Pamela Bompart, who has owned the site since 1975, donated it to the Conservancy.

In April of 1951, Forbis obtained permission from then property owner, James Bompart, Pamela’s father, to conduct excavations. In the summer of that year, Forbis and his small crew uncovered the artifact-rich Scottsbluff layer.

Forbis’ discoveries were trumpeted by newspaper articles and word of mouth, and the publicity attracted hundreds of looters who ravaged the Middle and Late Archaic cultural deposits and threatened the integrity of the underlying Paleo-Indian strata in some areas. 

Pamela, then a young girl, witnessed the Forbis’ excavations. Those memories inspired her to acquire the site and protect it from looters and development. She worked with the State Historic Preservation Office to list the MacHaffie site in the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

Culture and Time Period: Folsom, Scottsbluff, Middle and Late Archaic (10000 B.C. to A.D. 1)

Status: The site is threatened by rural residential development.

Aquisition: The site was recently donated to the Conservancy by Pamela Bompart. Closing costs and the cost of developing a management plan are $9,850.

How you can help: Please send contributions to The Archaeological Conservancy, attn: MacHaffie, 5301 Central Avenue, NE, Suite 902, Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517

Frazier (Colorado)

The Frazier site is located southwest of the South Platte River in north-central Colorado. It was discovered in 1965 by geologist Frank Frazier, who told the late Marie Wormington, an archaeologist at the Denver Museum of Natural History, about it. In 1965-67, Wormington directed the Denver Museum of Natural History’s excavation of the site. The excavators found over 40 partial bison remains, projectile points, scrapers, bifacial knives, gravers, and debitage. They also discovered a number of Agate Basin points associated with the bones.
           

Frazier is distinctive in that it may be the only Agate Basin site in the Western United States that has no older or younger components. Carbon dating of the organic material in the soil directly above the cultural remains dates the Frazier site to around 7500 B.C.         

Journey Ventures, L.L.C., the company that owned the land, agreed to sell the 1.6-acre area containing the site to the Conservancy for a price less than market value in a bargain sale to charity.

Culture and Time Period: Paleo-Indian-Agate Basin Complex, 9000 B.C.

Status: The site is located in a rapidly developing rural area adjacent to a new open-pit gravel mining and materials processing operation.

Acquisition: The Conservancy has an option to purchase the site from the owners of the nearby mining operation in a bargain-sale-to-charity transaction. The purchase price and additional costs for developing management and public educational programs will be $52,600.

How you can help: Please send contributions to The Archaeological Conservancy, Attn: Frazier Archaeological Site, 5301 Central Ave., NE, Suite 902, Albuquerque, NM 87108-1530.

Lyon’s Bluff (Mississippi)

Lyon’s Bluff is a Mississippian mound and village situated in Oktibbeha County, in east-central Mississippi, that was occupied around A.D.1000-1650.

The site was first excavated in the 1930s by archaeologist Moreau Chambers, with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, who uncovered several house floors.  A series of excavations took place in the 1960s and 1970s under the direction of Richard Marshall of Mississippi State University. Evan Peacock, with the Cobb Institute of Archaeology at Mississippi State University, excavated the site in 2001 and 2003. Peacock discovered that the mound had been constructed in several stages over a short amount of time in the 13th century.
           

The Conservancy has an option to purchase approximately 20 acres, including the mound and palisades, which is about half the site. “All of the factors combine to make Lyon's Bluff an exceptionally important site, and a real jewel for the Conservancy to obtain,” said Peacock. “The research potential of the site is enormous.”

Culture and Time Period: Mississippian through Protohistoric (A.D. 1000-1650).

Status: The site is threatened by residential development.

Acquisition: The Conservancy needs to raise $79,000 to preserve more than half the site.

How you can help: Please send contributions to The Archaeological Conservancy, Attn: Lyon's Bluff Archaeological Site, 5301 Central Avenue, Suite 902, Albuquerque, NM 87108-1530.

Royal Blockhouse  (New York)

In the Fall of 2001 the Conservancy acquired a five-acre parcel of land overlooking the Hudson River in the Town of Moreau, New York that contains a portion of the Royal Blockhouse site. The Conservancy has an opportunity to acquire the remainder of the site and expand the Royal Blockhouse preserve to over 17 acres.
           

Built in 1758, the Royal Blockhouse was manned with a garrison of British Colonial troops and was also used by Rogers’ Rangers. The site was a key part of one of the largest British military complexes in North America at the beginning of the French and Indian War. In addition to the Royal Blockhouse, this complex included Fort Edward, on the eastern side of the Hudson River, and Rogers Island, a 50-acre island in the river. The island is named after Major Robert Rogers, leader of Rogers’ Rangers, a group known for their commando tactics and fierce fighting against the French and their Native American allies. The island is considered the birthplace of the U.S. Army Rangers.
 

The Royal Blockhouse site is currently being considered for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. The Franklin D. Nastasi Trust is offering the Conservancy an 18-month option to purchase the remaining 12 acres of the site as a bargain sale to charity for $90,000.

Culture and Time Period: French and Indian War, 1758.

Acquisition: The Conservancy needs to raise $90,000 to purchase the remaining 12 acres of the site.

How you can help: Please send contributions to The Archaeological Conservancy, Attn: The Royal Blockhouse Project, 5301 Central Ave., NE, Suite 902, Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517.

Lower Jackson Mound (Louisiana)

The state of Louisiana is known for having more confirmed Archaic-period mounds than any other state. One of the best documented of these mounds is the Conservancy’s recent acquisition, the Lower Jackson Mound, located in the northeast part of the state. Lower Jackson sits on Bayou Macon and is near Poverty Point, a large, complex site with mounds and a network of raised ridges that date to approximately 1700 B.C.  For many years archaeologists assumed that the Lower Jackson Mound was related to Poverty Point because of their proximity and the fact that the same types of artifacts have been found at both sites.

But archaeologists discovered that Lower Jackson also has older artifacts. This evidence led Louisiana Regional Archaeologist Joe Saunders, United States Department of Agriculture soil scientist Thurman Allen, and Poverty Point State Historic Site manager Dennis LaBatt to reassess the age of Lower Jackson. They extracted soil cores from the mound in order to date it and to learn more about its construction. By radiocarbon dating the soil cores, they determined that Lower Jackson is approximately 6,000 years old, confirming their suspicions that it preceded Poverty Point.

Culture and Time Period: Middle Archaic to Poverty Point (3000-1700 B.C.).

Status: The owners are selling the farm on which the Lower Jackson Mound is located and the site is threatened by desructive agricultural practices.

Plan of action: The Conservancy needs to raise $37,000 for the purchase of the Lower Jackson Mound.

Cahokia Mound 1 (Illinois)

The Conservancy has entered into a contract with a Saint Louis real estate developer to purchase a two-acre parcel of land that contains Cahokia Mound 1, the easternmost mound of the great Cahokia ceremonial complex near East Saint Louis, Illinois. Cahokia Mounds, a United Nations World Heritage Site, is the largest prehistoric site in North America. It once consisted of about 120 earthen mounds that occupied a six square-mile area. 

While Monks Mound, the largest prehistoric mound north of Mexico, and its surrounding plazas form the core of Cahokia, the boundaries of what’s known as the greater Cahokia complex are delimited by four mound groups.  The Kunneman Group marks the northern boundary, the Rattlesnake Group the southern, the Powell Group, another Conservancy preserve, marks the western boundary, and Cahokia Mounds 1 and 2 the eastern. The first three groups have been extensively excavated in the past, while Cahokia mounds 1 and 2 have seen little investigation. The acquisition of Cahokia Mound 1 will expand the portion of Cahokia that’s protected.

Culture and Time Period: Mississippian, A.D. 1050-1275

Status: Endangered by proposed mixed residential and commercial development.

Acquisition: The Conservancy is in contact to purchase two acres including the mound. The cost to purchase, stabilization, and fence the site is $35,000.

How you can help: Please send contributions to The Archaeological Conservancy, Attn: Cahokia Mound 1, 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902, Albuquerque, NM 87108-1530.