Blackwater Locality No. 1

Blackwater Draw is an intermittent stream channel about long, with headwaters in Roosevelt County, New Mexico, about southwest of Clovis, New Mexico, and flows southeastward across the Llano Estacado toward the city of Lubbock, Texas, where it joins Yellow House Draw to form Yellow House Canyon at the head of the North Fork Double Mountain Fork Brazos River.United States Board on Geographical Names. 1964. Decisions on Geographical Names in the United States, Decision list no. 6402, United States Department of the Interior, Washington DC, p. 49. It stretches across eastern Roosevelt County, New Mexico, and Bailey, Lamb, Hale, and Lubbock Counties of West Texas and drains an area of .Seaber, P.R., Kapinos, F.P. and Knapp, G.L. 1987. Hydrological unit maps. United States Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper 2294, p. 46.

Archaeology

Th
Blackwater Draw National Historic Landmark
contains an important archaeological site that was first recognized in 1929 by Ridgley Whiteman of Clovis, New Mexico. Blackwater Locality No. 1 (29RV2; LA3324) is the type-site of the Clovis culture. The first large-scale excavation occurred in 1932, though local residents had been collecting bone and lithic materials for decades.

Evidence of "fluted" points, spearheads now known as Clovis points (a New World invention) and other stone and bone weapons, tools, and processing implements were found at the archaeological site. The Clovis points were lanceolate and often, though not always, longer than Folsom points.

The Clovis-age artifacts are in association with the remains of extinct Late Pleistocene megafauna, including mammoth, camel, horse, bison, saber-toothed cat, sloths, and dire wolf that were hunted by the early peoples who visited the site. Generations of some of the earliest New World inhabitants hunted and camped at Blackwater Draw, creating stratified levels of archaeological remains from many different time periods, including Clovis, Folsom, Midland, Agate Basin, and various Archaic period occupants.

Clovis chipped stone technology is currently one of the oldest and most widespread chipped stone technologies recognized in the New World; radiocarbon dates on sediment from the Clovis layers at Blackwater Draw average around 11,290 years before the present. Two of the projectile points from Blackwater Draw were used as the type specimens to define Clovis chipped stone technology in the 1930s.

The archaeological site is known for its well-defined and dated stratigraphic horizons that exhibit numerous cultural sequences. The sequences begin with the some of the earlier New World peoples and continue through the southwestern archaic, and into the historic period. Investigations at Blackwater Draw have recovered protein residue on Clovis weapons, indicating their use as hunting and possibly butchering tools on extinct Pleistocene animals.

Towards the end of the Pleistocene period, the climate began to change, which brought warmer and drier weather, causing the water flow in the region to dramatically decrease. This decrease caused small seasonal lake basins called playas to form. These areas became popular hunting locations for early North Americans.

Since its discovery, the Blackwater Locality No. 1 site has been a focal point for scientific investigations by academic institutions and organizations from across the country. The Carnegie Institute, Smithsonian Institution, Academy of Natural Sciences, National Science Foundation, United States National Museum, National Geographic Society, and more than a dozen major universities either have funded or participated in research at Blackwater Draw. Eastern New Mexico University owns and manages the excavations and visitations at the site.

The Anderson Basin district around Blackwater Draw in Roosevelt County, near Clovis and Portales was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961Note: A National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination document should be available upon request from the National Park Service for this site, but it is not available on-line from th
NPS Focus site
. and incorporated into the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.

Blackwater Draw Museum

The origina
Blackwater Draw Museum
was first opened to the public in 1969, at 42987 Highway 70, Portales, New Mexico primarily to display artifacts uncovered at the Blackwater Locality No. 1 site. The artifacts and displays illustrated life at the site during the Clovis period (over 13,000 years ago) through the recent historic period.

In 2017, the museum moved onto the Eastern New Mexico University (ENMU) campus, and expanded its focus to incorporate local history, as well as archaeology on a broad scale. Exhibits now include descriptions of archaeological work, different archaeological sites, cultural complexes, and scientific methods, among other topics. Visitors can learn more information about Blackwater Draw, archaeology, and see materials from the greater Southwest obtained from private collections. Currently, the Miles Collection displays Southwestern pottery, basketry, and textiles. As of August 2017, Blackwater Draw is under the direction of Dr. Brendon Asher of ENMU in Portales. The museum hired its first Collections Manager in 2020, Samantha Bomkamp.

The museum and site operate under the supervision of the Eastern New Mexico University'
Department of Anthropology and Applied Archaeology
ENMU students are able to work at the museum and site as student employees, interns, or volunteers. Anthropology students regularly use museum collections for class projects, research, and master's theses. Both facilities host class visits from ENMU and K-12 year round.

See also

* Blanco Canyon
* Blancan
* Brazos River
* Eastern New Mexico
* Llano Estacado
* Lubbock Lake Landmark
* Lubbock Subpluvial
*Mount Blanco
*North Fork Double Mountain Fork Brazos River
* Paleo-Indians
*Yellow House Draw
*National Register of Historic Places listings in Roosevelt County, New Mexico
*List of National Historic Landmarks in New Mexico

References

External links

Theclovissite.wordpress.com: ''Current research at the Blackwater Draw Clovis type site''Blackwater Draw Facebook Page
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Clovis sites
Canyons and gorges of New Mexico
Landforms of Roosevelt County, New Mexico
Native American museums in New Mexico
Archaeological museums in New Mexico
Museums in Roosevelt County, New Mexico
University museums in New Mexico
Archaeological type sites
Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in New Mexico
Pre-Columbian archaeological sites
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in New Mexico
History of Roosevelt County, New Mexico
National Historic Landmarks in New Mexico
Native American history of New Mexico
Brazos River
Llano Estacado
National Register of Historic Places in Roosevelt County, New Mexico