Archeological Notes On Texas Canyon, Arizona No.1

Summary

The area covered in this paper is, generally speaking, the drainage of the upper Texas Canyon, near Dragoon, Cochise County, Arizona. But more specifically, the development in the season of 1933 was confined to a flat field on the ranch of the writer. The elevation at this point is about 4,800 feet, and the climate is typically that of the Southwest at a like elevation. In the winter months it is warm in the daytime, cold at night, with an occasional snow flurry, and very little rain. The summer rains generally commence in July, and the summer days are hot, though the nights are comfortable.

On this land there is a spring, which in the memory of the oldest inhabitants of the section was perpetually flowing into what is now a dry wash. There was undoubtedly enough sweet water from this source to supply the needs of a large community, and as the work proceeds, the evidence grows that the people who once lived here were of no inconsiderable number. The ground on which these people concentrated their activities covered, from surface indications, a tract of about twenty acres. Scattered over, and bordering this area are metates and mortar holes in bed rock to the count of over fifty (pi. I). All of this ground is flat, and suitable for residence or farming. The soil is unusually fertile to a depth of from two to five feet.

While the sherds showing on the surface are more or less profuse, there are no surface signs of walls or other evidences of houses. In historic times the land has been thoroughly cultivated, consequently any rocks from fallen walls, if there were such, have been removed. I was informed by the homesteader of this ranch, that he did plow up many stones and carted them to the nearby wash.

The problem, therefore, was to locate under the surface what might remain of the habitations and artifacts of a prehistoric people. The district to the east of the wash was selected for exploration, for the reason that the western part is occupied by roads, ranch buildings, and orchards. This district was chosen in spite of the fact that the western part seems to be far more promising as to prospective archeological findings.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Digital Archive of Huhugam Archaeology (DAHA)   •
• Amerind DAHA Resources

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