The Folsom Discovery of 1908

Before 1927, scientists believed that mankind did not arrive in North America until 4,000 years ago. It took discoveries by a Black cowboy in New Mexico to revise that thinking by 7,000 years.

The cowboy was George McJunkin. Freed from slavery at the end of the Civil War, he gained notoriety as a bronc buster and roper. He was also an avid collector of rocks, fossils and Indigenous artifacts he found on the rugged Western landscape he worked.

On August 27, 1908, McJunkin was a manager of the Crowfoot Ranch in Folsom, northern New Mexico, when the area was hit by a deadly storm that produced 14 inches of rain. While surveying flood damage, he noticed huge bison bones exposed at the bottom of a gully 11-feet deep.

The unusual bones led him to seek interest in his discovery from the scientific community, this would not happen until five years after his death. In 1927, scientists from the Colorado Museum of Natural History began formal excavations of the site, hoping for a paleontological specimen to display. Unexpectantly, they discovered signs of man! The find was represented by a stone spear point — now called the Folsom point — lodged between the ribs of an extinct Ice Age bison (Bison antiquus) that lived 11,000 years ago.

George McJunkin’s discovery and advocacy for the Folsom Site contributed significantly to the sciences of archaeology and anthropology in the study of early man in North America.