COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO The Anthropology Department’s annual field course in archaeology at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs is being conducted in the U.S. Forest Service’s Comanche National Grassland (near LaJunta) through July 3.
Students, under the direction of Minette Church, assistant professor, Anthropology, and Kimberly Henderson, field assistant, are excavating a site that was inhabited by the Lopez family between the late 1870s and 1903. This archaeological site exploration was prompted by concern from the U.S. Forest Service for its decaying adobe walls, which are notoriously hard to preserve, and a desire to interpret the site to public visitors in the Picketwire Canyon portion of the National Grassland.
Demacio Lopez and his wife Loretta settled in the area and raised 12 children on the site, and Lopez descendents have generously provided the U.S. Forest Service with excerpts of letters and memoirs by the youngest daughter of the family. The memoirs of the oldest son, the late Elfido Lopez Sr., have been edited by his friend, local rancher and part-time archaeologist Richard Louden, and published in conjunction with a past exhibit on Hispanic culture in Southern Colorado at the Colorado History Museum entitled La Gente.
The CU-Colorado Springs researchers hope to be in contact with the Lopez family to further explore their memories and stories about life in southeastern Colorado through the turn of the last century. Their research in the archives as well as requests for family narratives will continue into the fall and winter, giving students training in the archaeology of sites of the historic period, and providing insight into the past of early Colorado settlers who are often ignored in traditional historical accounts.
The students are:
Melissa Anthony, Sioux City, Iowa
Chris Boechl, Farmington, New Hampshire
Anna Cordova, Colorado Springs
Stephanie DiCenso, Colorado Springs
Kimberly Henderson, Denver
Kjersti Howell, Lakeport, California
Cathi Koken, Colorado Springs
Rrobert Mark, Colorado Springs
Daniel Molineaux, Washington, D.C.
Cassandra Stevens, Colorado Springs
The project is funded through a cost-share agreement with the United States Forest Service.
CU-Colorado Springs, located on Austin Bluffs Parkway in northeast Colorado Springs, is the fastest growing university in Colorado and one of the fastest growing universities in the nation. The university offers 25 bachelor’s degrees, 17 master’s and two doctoral degrees. The campus enrolls more than 7,400 students annually.