Larimer County's first inhabitants left cultural clues

By Wayne Sundberg
Correspondent

Visible from most of north Fort Collins is the Cheyenne Ridge, which forms the border between Colorado and Wyoming. On the lee or south side of this physical boundary are the remains of a camping site of nomadic hunters who roamed this area at least 10,500 years ago.

Known as the Lindenmeier Site, this area was a major Folsom cultural find of the 1920s and '30s by the Coffin brothers, Roy and Claude. Their initial discovery of a peculiarly formed fluted stone projectile point in 1924 led to an ongoing archaeological dig from 1934 to 1940 by a team led by Dr. Frank Roberts Jr. from the Smithsonian. The find was made on land owned by William Lindenmeier Jr., hence the site's name. Had the find been publicly reported in the mid-20s, the famous point would have been named the Lindenmeier Point but, instead, the Folsom name came from a 1926 find in New Mexico.

The latter find came when cowboy George McJunkin was riding down an arroyo close to that town, and he spotted some extra large rib bones in the side of the arroyo. On closer examination, he discovered a finely crafted stone point imbedded between the rib bones. This led to an investigation by Dr. Jessie Figgins from the Denver Natural History Museum, who determined the point to be a unique cultural artifact and named it for the geographic location nearby--Folsom, N.M.

The excavations at the Lindenmeier Site revealed many stone artifacts - projectile points, scrapers, bone tools--and skulls of the Bison antiquus. An ancient ancestor of today's bison, it was about one and a half times the size of modern bison.

The Folsom people migrated into this area seasonally to hunt these large creatures with the atlatl--a spear throwing stick - and a spear shaft with a dart tip that would have held the stone Folsom point.

One of the most startling things about the Lindenmeier Site was not so much what was found, but what was not found. No human remains were ever found during the several seasons of excavating. Once the multi-seasonal digs were completed, the archaeological excavations were filled in and covered over.

History buffs can see some of the results of this dig at the Fort Collins Museum in its "History Floods Fort Collins" exhibit in the main gallery. A section of the exhibit focuses on the artifacts - scrapers, points, knives, drills and more; another looks at the archaeology of the site and the Folsom culture that created these objects. Children can dig for bison bones in a pit and try to identify the bones they have uncovered.

The Lindenmeier Ranch changed hands several times, eventually coming under control of the Soapstone Grazing Association. After many years of use as a cattle ranch, the property was purchased by Fort Collins in 2004. This brought several thousand acres of agricultural open space under the city's protective wing. The city had previously purchased the Meadow Springs Ranch to the east of Soapstone. This parcel was part of the vast holdings of Wyoming's former governor and U. S. senator, Francis E. Warren, and it is also rich in agricultural heritage. Warren used it as his south sheep ranch in the early part of the last century.

To the west of the Soapstone Ranch is the spectacular Red Mountain Ranch, purchased by Larimer County in December 2004. Open space tax dollars, as well as Great Outdoors Colorado money, helped in these purchases. The protection of this vast amount of open space will protect many historic and cultural sites, as well as preserve the viewshed for untold generations in the future.

Public access to these lands will not come for a few more years while cultural resource surveys and management plans are completed. Until then, the very important Lindenmeier Folsom Site will continue its slumber up on northern Colorado's piedmont.