The survey within these boundaries was selective, depending on the recruitment of private land owners. Fifty-two property owners agreed to participate, totaling approximately 1 million acres. These properties were spread throughout the project area, providing an excellent representation of the region’s landscapes and cultural resources. It was impossible to survey all the land of each property owner within the scope of this survey. Instead, the survey was focused on the ranchers guiding the survey team to points of interest. But an average of a day was spent on each ranch, with a great deal of land covered while traveling between sites. In order to get a more complete sense of the region and its development, the project also included a reconnaissance survey of resources located along the region’s highways as well as survey within its small towns. There are no large population centers located within the survey area. Three small towns lie within the region: Branson, Hoehne, and Kim. Though these towns were once commercial centers, today there are only a few businesses remaining. Most within the region travel to either to La Junta (northeast of the project area) or Trinidad (at the southwest end of the project area) for shopping and business. The fifty-eight sites surveyed during the intensive-level phase of the project covered roughly fifty acres.
Setting The survey region is part of the Central Shortgrass Prairie eco-region. The landscape features grasslands interspersed with canyonlands. Juniper and pinon woodlands and shrublands can be found along the canyon rims and slopes. Blue grama grass grows throughout the region, making it ideal for grazing. This grass is valued as forage and is palatable to livestock year round. Established plants are resistant to grazing, drought, and cold. But if the grass is tilled or disturbed at the root level it is hard to regenerate. As a result the land took decades to recover from the impact of the dry farming boom followed by the drought of the 1930s.
Project Area
The focus of this project was the Purgatoire River valley and the surrounding area. The project area is bounded by Highway 10, Interstate I-25 (excluding the area around Trinidad), the New Mexico/Colorado border and Highway 109. These boundaries encompass southern Otero County, much of eastern Las Animas County and small portions of Huerfano and Pueblo Counties. The majority of land within this region is privately owned, though federal ownership is also significant with both the Comanche National Grasslands and Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site within the project boundaries. Agriculture is the basis of the local economy with cattle sales accounting for the majority of agricultural profits. Most of the grazing is done on large, multigenerational family ranches, though many ranchers supplement their own grazing land with leases on state land or the Comanche National Grasslands.
Cultural Resources Survey of the Purgatoire River Region
Project Boundaries
The Purgatoire River runs diagonally through the project area, from southwest to northeast. The Apishapa River, Timpas Creek, and Chacuaco Creek also flow through the project area. These are the region’s primary water sources though there are also many small springs and seeps located among the canyons. The landscape supports a diverse range of wildlife including elk, mule deer, pronghorns, bighorn sheep, cougars, bobcats, and black bears. The presence of big game species has made hunting a popular activity, and many ranchers supplement their income by hosting hunters. A Colorado Birding Trail also runs through the region with bird species including Burrowing Owls, Golden Eagles, Prairie Falcons, roadrunners, and wild turkeys.
Physiography The majority of Colorado falls within three physiographic provinces: the Colorado Plateau to the west, the Southern Rocky Mountains in the middle, and the Great Plains to the east. The Purgatoire River Region survey is located within the Great Plains physiographic province. Zier and Kalasz describe the transition from the Southern Rocky Mountains to the Great Plains: The high peaks, mountain valleys, and steep canyons of the Southern Rockies give way variably along a north/ south axis first to foothills and then to high open plains that suddenly dominate the landscape in all directions. In southeastern Colorado, at some point between degrading mountain and aggrading plain, a broadly apparent but locally indistinct topographic transition occurs marking the eastern end of the Southern Rocky Mountain province and the western beginning of the Great Plains physiographic province that extends across eastern Colorado and beyond (Zier and Kalasz 1999). The Great Plains province can be divided into three sections: the Raton Basin, Colorado Piedmont, and High Plains. The project area falls almost entirely within the Raton Basin section. Approximately one third of this Raton Basin occurs within southeastem Colorado. The remainder extends south into New Mexico with a small portion penetrating the northwest corner of the Oklahoma panhandle. The Raton Basin is characterized by discontinuous mesas composed of sandstone capped by basalt. This comprises the highest section of the Great Plains and is described “as a group of plateaus and mesas in advanced
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