Most ranchers have a love of history, whether it’s the history of a particular breed of cattle, or brands or the romantic past of cowboys and trail drives, there is usually something they seem to be drawn to. For many ranchers in the West, the amazing landscape that you live in is capable of bringing both great joy (usually with rain) and pain. Your land could possibly also be a unique source of archaeological knowledge – the study of humans and their behavior.

Perhaps it’s the abundance of arrowheads that tells you the place is special or the shards of pottery or even weird rock structures whose history you don’t know. If the land has been passed down generation to generation, there are probably stories about certain places on the ranch that “might have been” an outlaw hideout or an Indian settlement. A lot of times, it’s understood that those stories stay in the family – don’t want anybody nosing around, do we?

Western Cowman asked some archaeologists what a rancher should do if they think there might be something historically valuable or interesting on their property. Their answers may surprise you. We even found one rancher who advertises the fact that she has archaeological items of interest you can go look at when you stay at her guest house.

Dr. Patrick Lyons is head of collections and associate curator at the Arizona State Museum (ASM). He has worked with numerous families in Arizona both in his current role and his previous experience as a preservation archaeologist with the Center for Desert Archaeology.                

“I have had terrific experience with private landowners,” says Lyons. “Families that have been out on these lands for a long time have really been terrific stewards, not just of natural resources but also of cultural resources. My advice to landowners is if you think you’ve got something, give your state museum or local university a call and see what they can find out. Here in Arizona, we take that part of our job, helping families, very seriously.”

Who to call

Lyons explains the best place to start is the state anthropology museum – if your state has one. Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Nevada all do, but Colorado does not. He suggests trying the University of Colorado at Boulder if you live there. In California, there are regional centers because the state is so big rather than one official state museum. In Texas, ranchers in the Big Bend area have called on Sul Ross State University and the Center for Big Bend Studies, where Andy Cloud is director.

“We get inquires all the time,” explains Cloud. “People will send in photos or even walk in with something and want to know what it is. Typically it will be spear points, arrow points or discarded flakes from the making of a prehistoric tool. We try to educate them and not just say, ‘It’s nothing.’ We don’t appraise anything. We just work with people and let them know what we do.”

What is significant?

You would be surprised at the things an archaeologist might be interested in – rock piles, trash piles (they call them middens), little things you might never notice, in fact.

“It doesn’t have to be impressive to be important,” Lyons points out. “To an archaeologist, anything that can tell us about past life has significance, research value and educational value. In Arizona, even the smallest sites can tell us a lot about the ancients who lived there, the materials they used and their connection to other peoples. In the San Pedro Valley, agricultural fields tell us there were a lot of groups in ancient times that altered the landscape to improve their water situation and help grow things like agave.”

For instance, he explains rock pile fields show how certain ancient peoples created small dams. Other ancient peoples built terraces into the sides of hills to manipulate water and plant crops. Where you find a certain type of spear point dubbed the Clovis point, you’ll know that during the Paleo-Indian Period, someone who lived there hunted and killed mammoths and bison. In fact, according to the ASM web site, it was two ranchers in Naco, Arizona, who first discovered mammoth remains in that area in 1952 and contacted archaeologists.

Cloud also says significant things are easily overlooked. “Even our crews that are used to looking at so much rock, if you look at a certain cluster it might look natural to one observer, but are there other clusters like it and does that mean something?”

He says archaeologists are trained to look at things in perspective to what is around them – which is why it is very important not to disturb any artifacts you find if it can be helped.

“Once an artifact is removed from its context, its scientific value is severely compromised,” Cloud explains. “Their removal can destroy more information than whatever can be gleaned from them. We also work to teach ranch owners how to properly document a find if they do want to collect it taking a detailed GPS reading.”

If you do invite an archaeologist out to your place, don’t be surprised if they spend all their time mapping or documenting rather than digging. Lyon says people are surprised that they don’t do many excavations any more. The reason is it’s terribly expensive to do right and to properly preserve the artifacts. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t learn something.

“Our methods have advanced so quickly,” explains Lyons. “Twenty years ago, we couldn’t do DNA, we used to not have tree ring dating, that sort of thing. We now leave some sites for the future because we can learn so much (with less digging).”

While the small things are just as important, the obvious ones are still important too – cave paintings, historic structures, prehistoric rock art, that sort of thing. While private landowners do own what is on their property and it’s up to them whatever disposal of such artifacts as they deem appropriate, there is one major exception – human remains.

Let buried bones lie there

While all states have similar laws, Lyons speaks only for Arizona, as the ASM is the official agency charged with overseeing this. “Dead bodies and things buried with them do not belong to the landowner. If burials are suspected, the state museum will talk to the local tribes. A lot of times they will want to leave them there, unless the body is eroding/exposed. Then they may ask us to come and get it for them and the tribe will rebury it.”

He says the only other potential hassle for private landowners could be if there are some improvements to be made that are paid by the government, they will probably want to take steps to ensure that no archaeological damage is caused by government dollars. That might involve moving a project over a few feet or around a site.

Of course, there are different rules that apply to public land that is leased by ranchers. However, Lyons points out that those rules are not under the direction or responsibility of archaeologists, but rather state and federal governments. In other words, you can pretty much do what you wish if those few limitations don’t describe your situation. 

Sharing it with others

Kathi Johnson is a Texas rancher who appreciates the historical value of the things ancient people left behind on her property, including burial sites, quarry sites, primitive cooking hearths and other artifacts.

She actively works with an archaeologist from the Texas Historical Commission and appeals to archaeology buffs who might want to visit her guest house at Walnut Creek Ranch just to traipse around and take a look.

“I grew up out there,” she explains. “My grandfather and father couldn’t have cared less about any of the Indian things. But after I left and got married, I came back and turned the old homestead into a guest ranch. I called someone who was trained in what to look for and he came out and showed me. We walked all over the place, but if you ask me it’s better to do it by horseback.

“They don’t pick up things, they just mark it on a map,” she adds. “We have a lot of flint; the old house is even made of it. Because of the creek, which is mostly dry now, there was apparently a big campground all around here. They want me to designate (the site) and put it into conservatorship, which is just something I’ll probably never do.”

Meanwhile, the ranch is still in working order, described on their web site (www.walnutcreekranch.com) as a 10,000-acre working cattle and sheep ranch. That’s the beauty of the archaeological stuff. You can check it out, appreciate it and maintain business as usual – perhaps with an even greater appreciation for the land that had fed your family and many others, and an enlightened perspective on your place in human history, what you’ll leave behind.