Monument 40 - Remnants of the Barlow-Blanco Construction Camp

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The Convention of 1882 formed a temporary joint commission to resurvey and place additional international boundary monuments from El Paso, Texas to San Diego, California along the United States – Mexico border. Today, a total of 258 cast iron and cut stone monuments were emplaced within line of site along the border. Under the Trump Administration, a new steel bollard wall was partially completed which consisted of reshaping the borderlands and impacted the monuments. Over several years, the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) has surveyed and recorded sites dealing with the construction camps, older emory monuments and current impacts due to the border wall construction. Monument 40 at the New Mexico “Bootheel” has shown in situ artifacts and features associated with its construction in the 1890s. Discussion will focus on this wall-less pristine site and the area before wall construction could begin again, forever changing the landscape and site.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2025

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow