Bradford House III is a private site located amid the extremely varied topography of the 10,000 acre Ken Caryl Ranch, Jefferson County, Colorado. Within a bluff in the Fountain Sandstone Formation lies a narrow rock shelter.   It was excavated by the Denver Chapter of the Colorado Archaeological Society in 1974-75.  The exploration indicated that the site has functioned through time as a shelter for small bands of people from approximately 565 B.C. to recent historic times. 

 

The deeply stratified site contains three Plains Woodland occupation levels overlaying two Archaic levels.  Twenty one fire pits, a pot hunter's pit, a human burial and a small cist were among  the features discovered.  More than 1400 artifacts  were carefully excavated, screened and photographed or sketched.  These included projectile points, knives,  scrapers, awls, shaft smoothers, drills gravers, a few large choppers, cores and other tools, and pot shards.  Bradford House III is significant  for the information it has revealed about adaptation and cultural change in the Rocky Mountain Transition Zone.