Monday, March 10, 2025 DC-CAS General Meeting – 7:00 PM MDT (HYBRID)
Speaker: Jack C. Warner, Ken-Caryl Ranch Historical Society’s Archaeology Lead, active CAS Director and former CAS President.
Please note that our meeting venue for this meeting will be on Auraria Campus in the Central Classroom Building, Room CN101. The entrance is on the NE corner of Curtis Street & 10th St. Mall across from Auraria Library. A campus map indicating the building’s location, nearby metered parking and nearest light rail station is provided below with links. As this a different venue, we will make every attempt to provide virtual access.
Abstract: Long before the written history of the area we call Ken-Caryl Ranch in the southwestern Denver Metro area started in the early 1800’s, people lived and worked here for thousands of years. Did you know?
· People were making stone tools and hunting here at least 9,300 years ago-well before the pyramids of Egypt, Stonehenge, the ancient Greeks, ancient Rome, and the ancient Maya.
· People hunted, made stone tools, gathered wild plants for food, made clothing, made large camps, and utilized our picturesque red rocks in their homes repeatedly for thousands of years.
· The most popular foods here were: bison (buffalo), mule deer, rabbits, and elk.
· Climate change here is not new. People lived here through times when average temperature was 10 F colder and periods of warmer, wetter, and dryer than now.
· Archaeologists have uncovered here one of the greatest concentration of sites used by ancient people found anywhere in the US.
· A just 6 miles southeast of Ken-Caryl, evidence of people hunting now extinct Columbian mammoths, camels, ground sloths, and American horses-some of the oldest human hunting evidence ever found, has been dated at 15,500 years ago. These animals and people surly roamed here at Ken-Caryl.
· There are three Ken-Caryl areas recognized by listing on the US National Register of Historic Places for their archaeological importance.
Prior to the modern development of Ken-Caryl Ranch (KCR), which started in the 1970’s, the landowners had the Denver Chapter of the Colorado Archaeological Society (CAS) do an archaeological survey of the land. Archaeology is the science that uncovers the physical objects left behind by past peoples, called artifacts, and researches their meaning. As a result of these archaeological surveys and artifact finds, from 1973-2020, ten major archaeological sites have been excavated on KCR land. This presentation by Jack C. Warner, a former President of the Colorado Archaeological Society and the Ken-Caryl Ranch Historical Society’s archaeology lead, will describe these Top 10 KCR Archaeological Sites.
Bio: Jack C. Warner is a lifelong student of the archaeology and anthropology of early humans. He has a particular interest in the early people in the Americas in general, and in Colorado in particular. Jack is experienced in archaeological fieldwork: survey, digs, lab artifact curation, analysis, talks, and publication involving prehistoric human occupation in the areas of the Colorado Front Range and Southwestern Colorado. Jack gives talks and tours relating to Denver area prehistoric archaeology, including at the Lamb Spring Archaeological Preserve, a 15,000+ year-old Paleo-Indian site with many extinct mammoth and bison remains. Jack is a past President and an active Director of the Colorado Archaeological Society, and is the archaeology lead for the Ken-Caryl Ranch Historical Society. He can be reached at Jackeagle@aol.com .
Full Map: Auraria Campus Map Evening Parking Lots & Garages: $20.00 & $25.00
Evening Metered Parking (red) Info: Auraria Campus Metered Parking (Use 5-Digit Number Zones Only) - $1.00 per 30 minutes/four-hour maximum.
Bus & Light Rail Information: RTD Trip Planner
Upcoming Events:
April 2025 – Annual Joint Meeting between the Denver Chapter, Indian Peaks Chapter and the Northern Chapter.
Comments