Resetting the Anchor: Reconsidering a Historic Ranch in Remote Northern New Mexico

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Archaeologies of the Eastern Jemez Mountain Range and the Pajarito Plateau: Interagency Collaboration for Management of Cultural Landscapes" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This poster outlines a re-examination of historic Anchor Ranch on the Pajarito Plateau in north-central New Mexico. Anchor Ranch was developed as a modern, working cattle ranch on the western end of the Pajarito Plateau during the early twentieth century, and featured all of things you imagine when considering a cattle ranch at that time: cowboys, barns, tractors, livestock and fields growing cattle feed. The Ranch served a second purpose that is more difficult to see on the surface. The Ranch housed Alexander Ross Jr., who was intellectually disabled. This role was necessitated by the eugenics movement, in which people with intellectual disabilities were believed to be the source of social problems and were commonly institutionalized to be kept away from society. The buildings at Anchor Ranch were destroyed as part of the development of Los Alamos National Laboratory. This poster looks at the landscape and artifacts from Anchor Ranch with Alexander Ross in mind, and considers whether someone with an intellectual disability can be seen in the archaeological record.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Archaeologies of the Eastern Jemez Mountain Range and the Pajarito Plateau: Interagency Collaboration for Management of Cultural Landscapes   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 26175