Hawkins Preserve is a property within the city limits of

Cortez, Colorado Cortez () is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home-rule municipality that is the county seat and the List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous municipality of Montezuma County, Colorado, United States. The ci ...

. It is protected by a conservation easement held by the Montezuma Land Conservancy. The property for the preserve was donated to the Cortez Cultural Center in the 1990s by Jack Hawkins which includes: * Biological and botanical resources in a pinion-juniper woodland that is bounded by sandstone potholes and McElmo Creek. * Prehistoric archaeological sites.

Nature preserve

Hawkins Preserve is a natural museum on 120 acres including seven ecological zones:''Vegetarian Communities''.
Cortez Cultural Center. 2011. Retrieved 9-26-2011. * Piñon-juniper woodland or Pygmy forest *

Sagebrush steppe Sagebrush steppe also known as the sagebrush sea, is a type of shrub-steppe, a plant community characterized by the presence of shrubs, and usually dominated by sagebrush, any of several species in the genus '' Artemisia''.

* Slickrock Pothole * Rimrock * Alluvial bottomland * Riparian corridor and intermittent streams * Post-disturbance and dunes

History

Early people

Hunter-gather 8,000 B.P. to AD 1 :Evidence from the

Hovenweep National Monument Hovenweep National Monument is located on land in southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah, between Cortez, Colorado and Blanding, Utah on the Cajon Mesa of the Great Sage Plain. Shallow tributaries run through the wide and deep canyons into ...

, west of Cortez, indicates that there were

Paleo-Indians Paleo-Indians were the first peoples who entered and subsequently inhabited the Americas towards the end of the Late Pleistocene period. The prefix ''paleo-'' comes from . The term ''Paleo-Indians'' applies specifically to the lithic period in ...

hunter-gatherer A hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living in a community, or according to an ancestrally derived Lifestyle, lifestyle, in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local naturally occurring sources, esp ...

and people of the Archaic period as early as 8,000 years ago.''Hovenweep Visitor Guide''
National Park Service. Retrieved 9-20-2011.Gibbon, Guy E.; Ames, Kenneth M. (1998
''Archaeology of Prehistoric Native America: An Encyclopedia''.
p. 377. . The ancestors of the

Mesa Verde Mesa Verde National Park is a national park of the United States and UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Montezuma County, Colorado, and the only World Heritage Site in Colorado. The park protects some of the best-preserved Ancestral Pueblo ...

Pueblo people hunted and lived in a difficult terrain, traversed deep canyons and areas of few animals and limited vegetation, and managed limited access to water - which made life difficult and limited the size of their hunt groups. They gathered seeds and fruit from wild plants to supplement their diet.Wenger, Gilbert R. (1991)

980 Year 980 ( CMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Peace is concluded between Emperor Otto II (the Red) and King Lothair III (or Lothair IV) at Margut, ending the Franco-Germa ...

''The Story of Mesa Verde National Park''. Mesa Verde Museum Park, Colorado: Mesa Verde Museum Association. p. 27. . Basket Makers AD 1 to 550 :The people living in the

Four Corners Four Corners is a region of the Southwestern United States consisting of the southwestern corner of Colorado, southeastern corner of Utah, northeastern corner of Arizona, and northwestern corner of New Mexico. Most of the Four Corners regio ...

region were introduced to

maize Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...

and

basketry Basket weaving (also basketry or basket making) is the process of weaving or sewing pliable materials into three-dimensional artifacts, such as baskets, mats, mesh bags or even furniture. Craftspeople and artists specialized in making baskets ...

through

Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area that begins in the southern part of North America and extends to the Pacific coast of Central America, thus comprising the lands of central and southern Mexico, all of Belize, Guatemala, El S ...

n trading about 2,000 years

Before Present Before Present (BP) or "years before present (YBP)" is a time scale used mainly in archaeology, geology, and other scientific disciplines to specify when events occurred relative to the origin of practical radiocarbon dating in the 1950s. Because ...

Able to have greater control of their diet through cultivation, the hunter-gatherers lifestyle became more sedentary as small disperse groups began cultivating maize and squash. They also continued to hunt and gather wild plants.''History & Culture''.
National Park Service. Retrieved 9-20-2011.Wenger, Gilbert R. (1991)

''The Story of Mesa Verde National Park''. Mesa Verde Museum Park, Colorado: Mesa Verde Museum Association. pp. 27-30. . :They were named "Basket Makers" for their skill in making baskets for storing food, covering with pitch to heat water, and using to toast seeds and nuts. They wove bags, sandals, belts out of yucca plants and leaves - and strung beads. They occasionally lived in dry caves where they dug pits that they lined with stones to store food. These people were ancestors of the pueblo people of the Hovenweep pueblo settlement and Mesa Verde.Rohn, Arthur H.; Ferguson, William M. (2006) ''Puebloan ruins of the Southwest.'' University of New Mexico Press. p. 148. .

Hawkins Preserve residents

Modified Basket Makers 550 to 750 :This era resulted in the introduction of pottery which reduced the number of baskets that they made and eliminated the creation of woven bags. The simple, gray pottery allowed them a better tool for cooking and storage. Beans were added to the cultivated diet. Bows and arrows made hunting easier and thus the acquisition of hides for clothing. Turkey feathers were woven into blankets and robes. Developmental Pueblo 750 to 1100 :Pueblo buildings were built with stone, windows facing south, and in U, E and L shapes. The buildings were located more closely together and reflected deepening religious celebration. Towers were built near kivas and likely used for look-outs. Pottery became more versatile, including pitchers, ladles, bowls, jars and dishware for food and drink. White pottery with black designs emerged, the pigments coming from plants. Water management and conservation techniques, including the use of reservoirs and silt-retaining dams also emerged during this period. :Like the people at

Canyon de Chelly National Monument Canyon de Chelly National Monument ( ) was established on April 1, 1931, as a unit of the National Park Service. Located in northeastern Arizona, it is within the boundaries of the Navajo Nation and lies in the Four Corners region. Reflecting o ...

, and the Mesa Verde village communities moved from mesa tops to the heads of canyons about 1100. Great Pueblo period 1100 to 1300 :People, generally considered part of the

branch of the northern San Juan Pueblo (Anasazi) culture, transitioned from their disperse housing and began building pueblos in the late 12th century alongside springs or other water sources near or at the canyon heads. Most of the pueblo building was conducted, about the same time as the Mesa Verde cliff dwellings, between 1230 and 1275 when there were about 2,500 residents. The Hovenweep architecture and pottery was like that of Mesa Verde. :About 1160, area residents, such as those at Mesa Verde and Hovenweep, began building larger pueblo residential complexes, up to 3 story towers, dams, and reservoirs. They moved their fields into areas where water could be controlled. They also built large stone towers, living quarters and other shelters to safeguard springs and seeps. The stone course pueblos and towers exhibit expert masonry skills and engineering. The builders did not level foundations for their structures, but adapted construction designs to the uneven surfaces of rock slabs. These stone pueblos were referred to as castles by 19th-century explorers.''Little Ruin Canyon Trail Guide.''
National Park Service. Retrieved 9-20-2011.
National Park Service. Retrieved 9-20-2011.
National Park Service. Retrieved 9-20-2011.
National Park Service. Retrieved 9-20-2011.

Post-Pueblo Native American tribes 1300 to 1700

After 1300

s, ancestors of the

Ute Ute or UTE may refer to: * Ute people, a Native American people of the Great Basin * Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, Utah * Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah * Southern Ute Indian Tribe of the Southern ...

and

Navajo The Navajo or Diné are an Indigenous people of the Southwestern United States. Their traditional language is Diné bizaad, a Southern Athabascan language. The states with the largest Diné populations are Arizona (140,263) and New Mexico (1 ...

, moved into the southwestern

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

and southeastern

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

and came to inhabit the region.''The Post-Pueblo Period: A.D. 1300 to Late 1700s.''
Crow Canyon Archaeological Center. 2011. Retrieved 9-26-2011. * The ancestors to the Navajo were one of the tribes of the southern division of the

Athabaskan Athabaskan ( ; also spelled ''Athabascan'', ''Athapaskan'' or ''Athapascan'', and also known as Dene) is a large branch of the Na-Dene language family of North America, located in western North America in three areal language groups: Northern, ...

language family that migrated south from Alaska and northwestern Canada, most likely traveling through the

Great Basin The Great Basin () is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds, those with no outlets to the ocean, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja Californi ...

. The Navajo ancestors were in the area after 1300, but at least by the early 16th century. * The people from who the Ute descended arrived in the area from the west in this period from 1300 to the 18th century. The Ute's ancestors are hunter-gatherers who in the 12th century began migrating east from the present southern California area into a large hunter-gathering territory as far east as the Great Plains and in the canyons and mountains of eastern Utah and Colorado. During this period, the Spanish colonial reach extended to northern New Mexico, where they settled in the 16th century. They introduced items for trade, such as guns and horses, new and deadly diseases, and cultural influence in the forms of religion, language, and forms of government. In the 18th century Spanish

missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Miss ...

visited the area looking for a route to Spanish missions in California. One of the expeditions was that of Spanish friars Silvestre Vélez de Escalante and Francisco Atanasio Domínguez who traveled from New Mexico, through western Colorado to Utah.''Dominquez and Escalante Expedition, 1776.''
UintahBasintah.org, which cites Chavez Waner's ''The Dominguez and Escalante Journal'' published in the University of Utah Press in 1995.

European and American settlement 18th century to present

The first

Anglo Anglo is a prefix indicating a relation to, or descent from England, English culture, the English people or the English language, such as in the term ''Anglosphere''. It is often used alone, somewhat loosely, to refer to people of British d ...

American people arrived in the early 1800s, starting with trappers. With the discovery of precious ores in the last decades of the 19th Century, miners and other settlers moved into the region.''The Historic Period: Late A.D. 1700s to Mid-1900s.''
Crow Canyon Archaeological Center. 2011. Retrieved 9-26-2011. The Hawkins Preserve includes land that was near a ranch owned by Henry Mitchell. On his land is an archaeological site of 9 medium-sized pueblos called " Mitchell Springs". By the mid-19th century the United States government and Native American tribes were at war over land ownership. People were forced to leave their homelands. The

had moved south and the

territory was significantly reduced.

Notable sites

Excavations

Lewis Henry Morgan

Lewis H. Morgan Lewis Henry Morgan (November 21, 1818 – December 17, 1881) was a pioneering American anthropologist and social theorist who worked as a railroad lawyer. He is best known for his work on kinship and social structure, his theories of social e ...

visited Montezuma Valley in 1878 during one of his trips through the

American Southwest The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural list of regions of the United States, region of the United States that includes Arizona and New Mexico, along with adjacen ...

. At that time he made notes and maps of archaeological sites at the current Hawkins Preserve and nearby Mitchell Springs. Within the Hawkins Preserve he recorded cliff dwellings found along McElmo Canyon. The site included groups of several small chambers just above the canyon bottom. Nearby is a corral that held cattle, sheep or other livestock. It was clearly occupied some time after European American settlement, and possibly before then. The Mitchell Springs site, near Hawkins Preserve, consists of 9 medium-sized pueblos and believed to have occupied up to 1,000 people at its height. The site shows occupancy from the Basket Makers II period through late Pueblo III period.

J.A. Halasi

In 1977 J.A. Halasi conducted an archaeological inventory and identified 2 prehistoric scatters and a large

pre-historic Prehistory, also called pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use o ...

ruin. The large ruin was a rubble

mound A mound is a wikt:heaped, heaped pile of soil, earth, gravel, sand, rock (geology), rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded ...

partially excavated to determine that were 2

kiva A kiva (also ''estufa'') is a space used by Puebloans for rites and political meetings, many of them associated with the kachina belief system. Among the modern Hopi and most other Pueblo peoples, "kiva" means a large room that is circula ...

depressions, diagnostic pot sherds and midden deposits. The site seemed to be from the Pueblo II period.

Bruce Bradley

Bruce Bradley identified an additional 21 sites during an archaeological survey in 2000. The sites are from the Basket Maker II, Pueblo II, Pueblo II periods and unknown pueblo and pre-historic periods. In addition to dwellings, there were also an alcove room with pictographs, 3 check dams, a field house, grinding areas, hearths, and artifacts.

Mona C. Charles

Mona Charles led a group of

Fort Lewis College Fort Lewis College (FLC) is a public liberal arts college in Durango, Colorado, and the only four-year and graduate studies institution in the Four Corners region. FLC's historical evolution spans its origins as a U.S. military fort, an Indian ...

students through an archaeological study in 2006. During that time they completed: * Limited, low-disruption excavation to collect artifacts, which were sent to

Crow Canyon Archaeological Center Crow Canyon Archaeological Center is a research center and "living classroom" located in southwestern Colorado, US, which offers experiential education programs for students and adults. Crow Canyon is a center for archaeological research, educ ...

for analysis * Electric resistivity and magnetometry technology surveys to identify ruins below the surface *

Total station A total station or total station theodolite is an electronic/optical instrument used for surveying and building construction. It is an electronic transit theodolite integrated with electronic distance measurement (EDM) to measure both vertic ...

and

Global Positioning System The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based hyperbolic navigation system owned by the United States Space Force and operated by Mission Delta 31. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provide ge ...

(GPS) maps

State Historic Fund Grant

In 2006 a State Historic Fund Grant administered by the Colorado Historical Society was provided to study the main site in Hawkins Preserve.''State Historical Fund Grants''
Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, Colorado Historical Society. Retrieved 9-24-2011.

References

External links

Hawkins PreserveCortez Cultural Center
{{Coord, 37.33412, -108.59355, type:landmark_region:US-CO, display=title Protected areas of Montezuma County, Colorado Nature reserves in Colorado Archaeological sites in Colorado