United States

Department of

Agriculture

Forest Service

Rocky Mountain

Research Station

General Technical Report 

RMRS-GTR-176

September 2006

Prehistory and Early History 

of the Malpai Borderlands: 

Archaeological Synthesis and 

Recommendations

Paul R. Fish

Suzanne K. Fish

John H. Madsen
Fish, Paul R.; Fish, Suzanne K.; Madsen, John H. 2006. Prehistory and early history of the Malpai 

Borderlands: Archaeological synthesis and recommendations. Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR176. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research 

Station. 112 p.

Abstract—Prehispanic and early historic archaeological information for the Malpai Borderlands of 

southwest New Mexico and southeast Arizona is reviewed using data derived from field reconnaissance, 

discussion with relevant scholars, archival resources from varied agencies and institutions, and published 

literature. Previous regional research has focused on late prehistory (A.D. 1200 to 1450), shaping the 

scope of cultural historical overview and providing an opportunity to examine relationships with Casas 

Grandes (Paquime) to the south. A second important objective of current study is the exploration of prehispanic and early historic human impacts to Borderlands ecosystems, particularly in relation fire ecology. 

A recommended sequence of future research is intended to address significant questions surrounding 

both culture history and anthropogenic environments in the Malpai Borderlands.

Key Words: Malpai Borderlands, archaeology, Mimbres culture, Animas phase, Paquime

The Authors

Paul R. Fish is Professor of Anthropology and Curator of Archaeology, Arizona State Museum, University 

of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona.

Suzanne K. Fish is Professor of Anthropology and Curator of Archaeology, Arizona State Museum, 

University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona.

John H. Madsen is Associate Curator of Archaeology, Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, 

Tucson, Arizona.

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Please specify the publication title and series number.

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Cover photos: top left: Cloverdale Playa

top right: Sandals

bottom left: Map of Box Canyon

bottom right: Photo of feature at Box Canyon
Prehistory and Early History 

of the Malpai Borderlands: 

Archaeological Synthesis and 

Recommendations

Paul R. Fish, Suzanne K. Fish, and John H. Madsen

with contributions by:

Christopher R. Baisan

A.C. MacWilliams

Guadalupe Sanchez de Carpenter

Thomas W. Swetnam

Margot Wilkinson-Kaye

U.S. Department of Agriculture

Forest Service

Rocky Mountain Research Station
Preface

Considerable time has passed since we began this project, and indeed, since we submitted this report. 

The volume has been through various rounds of editing, but publication has been delayed; its present form 

is much as it was when submitted in 2000. We have updated the text and references where feasible, but 

revising the entire document to reflect the last six years of research would have meant revisions beyond 

available time and resources. The volume must stand on its merits as a synthesis of archaeological and 

environmental research on the Malpai Borderlands study area at that time.

We appreciate the efforts of the U.S. Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station to bring the volume 

to final publication, and particularly Carl Edminister. Su Benaron of the Arizona State Museum provided 

invaluable editorial oversight in the final round of preparation. Her commitment and skill are greatly appreciated. We also thank Todd Pitezel, Department of Anthropology at the University of Arizona, for many 

tasks of compilation, editing, and attention to detail.

ii
Contents

Chapter 1. Introduction..........................................................................................1

Malpai Borderlands Ecosystem Study Area.................................................................. 1

Borderlands Archaeological Context............................................................................. 2

Goals for This Overview................................................................................................ 2

Project Methodology ..................................................................................................... 3

Postscript and Acknowledgments ................................................................................. 4

Chapter 2. Borderlands Environment, Past and Present....................................7

Post-Pleistocene Environmental Change ..................................................................... 7

Precipitation and Growing Season ............................................................................... 9

Borderlands Biotic Communities................................................................................. 10

Soil Types ................................................................................................................... 16

Study Area Lithic Resources....................................................................................... 17

Settlement Potential of Borderlands Valleys............................................................... 20

Closing Observations.................................................................................................. 22

Chapter 3. Malpai Borderlands Prehistory.........................................................23

History of Research .................................................................................................... 23

Culture History ............................................................................................................ 25

A Final Comment on Regional Interaction .................................................................. 41

Chapter 4. Summary of Spanish, Mexican, and Early American 

 Exploration in the Borderlands....................................................................45

Introduction ................................................................................................................. 45

Documentary Resources ............................................................................................ 45

The Land..................................................................................................................... 45

History of the Borderlands .......................................................................................... 46

Ecology, Landscape, and Colonial/Mexican Period Use............................................. 50

Concluding Remarks .................................................................................................. 53

Chapter 5. Borderlands Fire Regimes ................................................................55

Introduction ................................................................................................................. 55

Climate and Study Area Information ........................................................................... 55

Regional Fire History Study ........................................................................................ 55

Local Fire History Reconstructions ............................................................................. 57

Human Influence on Fire Histories ............................................................................. 60

Conclusions ................................................................................................................ 61

Chapter 6. Modeling Human Impacts to the Borderlands Environment 

 From a Fire Ecology Perspective.................................................................63

Introduction ................................................................................................................. 63

Human-Induced Fire in Historical Perspective............................................................ 63

Natural Versus Cultural Magnitudes ........................................................................... 64

Fire Ecology of the Early Archaeological Sequence ................................................... 64

Fire Ecology of the Late Prehistoric Archaeological Sequence .................................. 65

A Zonal Model of Fire Use .......................................................................................... 66

Fire Ecology of Anthropogenic Landscapes ............................................................... 68

iii
Chapter 7. An Archaeological Research Design for the 

 Malpai Borderlands.......................................................................................71

Borderlands Archaeological Context........................................................................... 71

Phase 1: Spanish and Mexican Archival Study .......................................................... 71

Phase 2: Malpai Borderlands Conference/Workshop................................................. 71

Phase 3: Survey of Existing Artifact and Field Record Collections............................. 72

Phase 4: Tree-Ring Studies Pertaining to Archaeology.............................................. 72

Phase 5: Geoarchaeological Assessment .................................................................. 72

Phase 6: Reconnaissance Survey.............................................................................. 72

Phase 7: Systematic Survey....................................................................................... 73

Phase 8: Studies in Holocene Environmental Change ............................................... 73

Phase 9: Problem-Oriented Excavations.................................................................... 73

References Cited ..................................................................................................75

Supplementary Malpai Borderlands References...............................................86

Appendix A. Borderlands Site Database............................................................88

Appendix B. Archaeological Surveys in the Borderlands 

Study Area Listed by USDA 7.5-minute Quad..............................................101

Appendix C. Concordance of Site Names and Numbers

From Different Institutions and Surveys ......................................................103

Appendix D. Additional Observations on the Early History 

of the Borderlands..........................................................................................109

iv

USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 1

Malpai Borderlands Ecosystem Study 

Area______________________________

The Malpai Borderlands study area is in those portions of southeastern Arizona and southwestern New 

Mexico that have been biogeographically described as 

the Madrean Archipelago (DeBano and others 1994: 

580). The area covers approximately 1,600 square miles 

of the Basin and Range Physiographic Province south 

of the Rocky Mountains and north of the Sierra Madre 

Occidental (fig 1.1). Arbitrarily bounded on the south by 

the international border with Mexico, it includes large 

sections of the San Bernardino, San Luis, Animas, and 

Playas Valleys.

Low elevations range from about 1,220 m (4,000 ft) in 

the San Bernardino Valley basins to 1,525 m (5,000 ft) in 

the Animas Valley and to 1,370 m (4,500 ft) in the Playas 

Valley. Highest elevations in the Animas and Peloncillo 

Mountains are over 2,240 m (8,000 ft). These elevation 

differences, combined with variation in climatic regime 

along the 120 km (75 miles) east-west width of the study 

area, create a region of considerable biological diversity; in fact, this is one of the most biologically diverse 

regions in North America (DeBano and others 1994: 

580). Within the study area, lowlands are characterized 

by Sonoran Desert and thornscrub vegetation in the San 

Bernardino Valley in the west, by Plains Grassland in the 

centrally positioned Animas Valley, and by Chihuahuan 

desertscrub and grassland in the Playas Valley (Brown 

and Lowe 1980). Mountain ranges support oak and 

pine-oak woodlands, pine forests, and spruce-fir forests 

on the highest peaks.

Rainfall is highly correlated with elevation. Between 

250 and 350 mm (9.75 and 13.65 inches) falls on valley 

floors and over 500 mm (19.50 inches) on the mountain 

crests. These patterns become increasingly summerdominant as they move eastward across the study area. 

Hydrologically, sustained surface water is patchy, occurring in cienega locations on valley floors and spring 

localities at the edges and in the mountain masses. Interior 

drainage in the San Luis and Playas Valleys create large 

ephemeral lakes.

Because of this biological diversity and because of 

intense historic human impacts on the landscape, Federal 

and State land management agencies and local landowners 

are exploring use of the Malpai Borderlands as a natural 

laboratory to develop a comprehensive program of ecosystem management. Proposed and ongoing research to 

support this management program includes long-term 

studies of the ecosystem from population, community, 

and landscape perspectives and a focus on interactions 

between grasses and woody plants in relation to soils, 

climate, and human disturbance. From the onset, program 

research has emphasized invasion of woody plants into 

grassland environments and a resulting loss of ecosystem 

diversity.

The invasion of woody plants is variously attributed 

to drought, overgrazing by livestock, and the suppression of fire. Restoration of a “natural role” for fire, with 

prescribed burns and changes in wildfire suppression 

practices, is seen as an appropriate management technique 

to counter invasion trends (Allen 1994: 386–388). The 

role of fire and its long-term effectiveness in ecosystem 

management practices are a particular focus of Malpai 

Borderlands research goals.

The purpose of this present book is twofold: first, to 

synthesize existing archaeological information about the 

Borderlands to provide a long-term background of changing prehistoric environment due to climate and human 

impacts, including the use and suppression of fire; and 

Paul R. Fish

Suzanne K. Fish

Chapter 1.

Introduction
2 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006

second, to develop a plan for continuing investigation 

of these phenomena.

Borderlands Archaeological Context___

The archaeological manifestations of the Malpai 

Borderlands study area are intermediate between the 

homelands of several better defined and relatively 

well-studied archaeological cultures. To the northwest, 

the Hohokam represent a persistent cultural expression 

throughout ceramic times. To the north and northeast, 

before A.D. 1200, the Mimbres culture created dominant 

styles. Thereafter, archaeological cultures in a broadly 

Mogollon tradition are represented by Salado and Casas 

Grandes spheres, to the north and south, respectively.

Located between some of the more dramatic developments in Southwest prehistory, the Malpai Borderlands 

have played a key role in regional synthesis and the 

development of interpretive constructs about frontiers 

(De Atley 1980), interaction spheres, political dominance 

(Di Peso 1974; Wilcox 1995), and short-term sedentism 

with cycles of abandonment and migration (Nelson and 

Anyon 1996; Nelson and LeBlanc 1986). These regional 

models and related constructs necessarily incorporate 

fragmentary data from the Borderlands and reflect perspectives based on better understood cultural systems in 

other regional sectors.

Local typological, chronological, and cultural sequences are poorly developed for the Malpai Borderlands. 

Instead, archaeologists typically have projected established schemes from adjacent cultures. Borderlands 

research invariably has been designed to address Casas 

Grandes, Mimbres, or Salado issues, and there has never 

been a sustained, intensive investigative focus on locally 

generated problems. Because the study area has not had 

significant pressures from urban or agricultural development with direct Federal and State involvement, cultural 

resource management investigations have been limited to 

a few surveys, and high-quality, large-scale excavation 

programs have not been undertaken.

Goals for This Overview_____________

Four objectives for this overview were defined by the 

Coronado National Forest and the authors. First, we were 

to assemble and organize existing site information for the 

Malpai Borderlands study area. Second, a synthesis of 

study area culture history and ecology was to place local 

Figure 1.1. Major geographic features of the Malpai Borderlands study area.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 3

developments in a regional context and to serve as an 

annotated bibliography to facilitate future investigations. 

Third, a model of prehistoric human impacts from the 

particular perspective of fire ecology was to be constructed 

to frame questions for future research. Finally, a series 

of recommendations and stages of investigation were to 

be identified to direct future archaeological research by 

the Coronado National Forest and the Rocky Mountain 

Research Station, USDA Forest Service.

Project Methodology________________

Introduction to Study Area Archaeology

We gained insight into the archaeology and environment of the Malpai Borderlands study area through a 

3-day field trip in January 1996 led by Thomas O’Laughlin 

of the Jornada Anthropological Research Association, 

John Douglas of the Department of Anthropology at 

the University of Montana, and John Carpenter of the 

Department of Anthropology at the University of Arizona. 

The first day was devoted to the Animas Valley with stops 

at an early ceramic site, Maddocks Ruin, Cloverdale 

Ruin, and Paleoindian and Archaic sites along Cloverdale 

Creek and at the edge of the Cloverdale Playa. We visited 

Joyce Well and Culberson Ruin on the second day and 

then visited a large Animas-phase pueblo in the Carretas 

Basin in Chihuahua. The third day was devoted to Boss 

Ranch and other sites in the San Bernardino Valley.

Paul and Suzanne Fish made additional visits to the 

study area in spring 1995 to gain additional familiarity 

with the environment. Extended discussion with others 

knowledgeable about Malpai Borderlands archaeology 

included Curtis Schaafsma, Paul Minnis, Stephen Lekson, 

Michael Foster, John Ravesloot, Michael Whalen, Jim 

Ayres, John Roney, Thomas Holcomb, and Diana Hadley. 

These reconnaissance visits and interchanges with area 

researchers provided insight and background to prepare 

us for writing this overview.

Project investigators returned to the study area two 

times in spring 1996. The first visit was an attempt to 

locate the ballcourt described by Roger Kelley (1963) 

and to conduct reconnaissance level survey around 

Box Canyon, the Cowboy site, and Clanton Draw. The 

ballcourt could not be located. The second visit was to 

archaeological sites located by Jeff Shauger, an employee 

of the Gray Ranch, and to examine collections made by 

him at these sites. Shauger has systematically recorded 

archaeological sites during the course of his survey of 

ranch facilities such as fencelines, roads, water tanks, and 

old homesteads. His archaeological efforts represent a 

valuable resource that we discovered only in April 1996, 

and unfortunately could not integrate into this overview 

in any systematic manner.

Annotated Bibliography and Historical 

Overview

We first prepared an annotated bibliography of archaeological literature directly bearing on the Malpai 

Borderlands study area and submitted it to the Coronado 

National Forest as a separate resource for its use. Although 

the bibliography is not included as an overview chapter, 

a majority of the entries have been incorporated into text 

references for chapter 4.

John Madsen reviews study area history in chapter 5 

and in appendix D. The review covers the colonial and 

Mexican periods of study area land use and exploration to 

about A.D. 1850. Later ethnographic resources that pertain 

to Apache use of the study area are also incorporated.

Records and Archival Compilations

During spring and summer 1995, site files and report 

archives were consulted at the Arizona State Museum 

(including the records of the Gila Pueblo), Amerind 

Foundation, Bureau of Land Management (San Simon and 

Las Cruces offices), University Museum at New Mexico 

State University, School for American Research, and 

the Museum of New Mexico. Site and survey locations 

were plotted on USGS 7.5-minute topographic maps. 

Copies of these maps have been provided to the Cultural 

Resource Management office of the Coronado National 

Forest and are also on file at the Site File Office at the 

Arizona State Museum.

A database was developed from assembled site records 

that includes information on location, elevation, culture, 

ownership, and architectural and artifactual characteristics. The database is appendix A of this report. An 

electronic version also has been provided to the Heritage 

Program office of the Coronado National Forest for future 

expansion. Agency and other institutional surveys are 

listed by topographic quad in appendix B, and appendix C 

displays a concordance between site numbers and names 

assigned to study area sites by different institutions and 

surveys. Those interested in consulting literature on the 

Malpai Borderlands in addition to those cited in this volume, please refer to the section entitled “Supplementary 

Malpai Borderlands References.”

General Land Office Survey maps and notes for the 

study area were obtained on microfilm from the Bureau 

of Land Management State Offices in Albuquerque, New 

Mexico, and Phoenix, Arizona. All relevant surveys 

date from the late 1890s to the early 1930s. Maps and 
4 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006

notes were reviewed for information on water sources, 

evidence of farming, and old roads and trails. These maps 

contain considerable information of historic value, such 

as homestead locations and mines. The microfilm copies 

of maps and notes have been placed in the Arizona State 

Museum library.

Environmental Background

A survey of information of potential relevance in 

understanding Malpai Borderlands past and present environment was made by Guadalupe Sanchez de Carpenter 

and A.C. MacWilliams. Chapter 2 is a guide to published 

information directly pertaining to the study area and 

should be used as an annotated bibliography on subjects 

such as lithic resources, vegetation, soils, and studies 

of environmental change. It also provides discussion of 

environmental variability within and between study area 

valleys. Table 1.1 provides a list of common and scientific 

names for plants and animals used in this volume.

Finally, a major objective of this overview has been 

to explore possibilities of prehistoric human impacts to 

the environment, from the particular perspective of fire 

ecology (chapter 5). In view of the nature of available 

archaeological data, this study emphasizes the period of 

late prehistoric pueblos postdating A.D. 1200. Because 

both environmental and archaeological data are limited 

for the study area, the assessment draws heavily on 

ethnographic practices and interpolations from surrounding Southwestern regions. A model of impact specific to 

Malpai Borderlands vegetation and settlement patterns 

is presented in chapter 6.

Postscript and Acknowledgments____

This report was prepared in 1997 as part of a contract between the University of Arizona and the Rocky 

Mountain Research Station, USDA Forest Service. It 

was revised only slightly before publication to accommodate important new findings and critical literature. 

With the exception of research by New Mexico State 

University (Skibo and others 2002) in the “bootheel,” 

and reanalysis of past excavations (Douglas 2004; Skibo 

and others 2002), few new investigations have been 

conducted and published within the Malpai Borderlands 

study area. However, intensive investigations south of 

the international border have significantly changed our 

understanding of regional culture history. Changes in the 

original manuscript have been limited to only the most 

important of these findings.

Acknowledgments

Carl Edminster (Rocky Mountain Research Station, 

USDA Forest Service), Patricia Spoerl (Recreation and 

Lands Staff Officer, Coronado National Forest) and James 

MacDonald (Forest Archaeologist, Coronado National 

Forest), were constant sources of information, advice, 

editorial comment, and administrative support throughout 

the process of preparing this overview. Conversations with 

numerous colleagues helped refine our understanding of 

local prehistory and often led us to new sources of data; 

these individuals include Jim Ayres, John Carpenter, 

Jeffrey Dean, John Douglas, Patricia Gilman, Diana 

Hadley, Thomas Holcomb, Stephen Lekson, Paul Minnis, 

Thomas O’Laughlin, David Phillips, John Ravesloot, 

John Roney, Curtis Schaafsma, and Michael Whalen. 

Curtiss Schaafsma particularly stands out for generously sharing his wealth of information and data on the 

bootheel section of the Borderlands. Archives and site 

files at the Amerind Foundation, Arizona Bureau of Land 

Management, New Mexico Bureau of Land Management, 

Arizona State Museum, Museum of New Mexico, Gray 

Ranch, and the New Mexico Bureau of Mines provided 

information important in the preparation of the overview. 

Ben Brown and Jeff Shauger of the Gray Ranch offered 

important information about study area archaeology and 

environment. John Douglas (University of Montana), 

William Gillespie (Coronado National Forest), and John 

Ravesloot (Gila River Indian Community) supplied 

numerous suggestions in their peer review of the final 

draft manuscript.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 5

Table 1.1. List of common and scientific names used in this publication.a

Common name Scientific name

Acacia Acacia sp.

Acorn Quercus sp.

Agave Agave sp.

Alligator juniper Juniperus deppeana

alkali-sacaton grass Sporobolus wrightii

Antelope (pronghorn) Antilocarpa americana

Apache pine Pinus engelmannii

Ash Fraxinus sp.

Aspen Populus sp.

Bean Phaseolus sp.

Bear-grass Nolina sp.

Blue grama Bouteloua gracilis

Bobcat Lynx rufus

Border pinyonb/ Mexican pinyon Pinus discolorb/ Pinus cembroides

Bottle Gourd Lagenaria siceraria

Bulrush Scirpus sp.

Burro-weed Aplopappus tenuisecta

California Partridge Callipepla californica

Catclaw Acacia Greggii

Cedar Juniperus sp.

Chihuahua pine Pinus leiophylla var. chihuahuana

Cholla Opuntia sp.

Colorado chum Gila cf. robusta

Corkbark fir Abies lasiocarpa var. arizonica

Corn Zea mays

Cottontail Sylvilagus sp.

Cottonwood Populus sp.

Coyote Canis latrans

Creosote-bush Larrea tridentate

Cucurbit Cucurbita sp.

Deer Odocoileus sp.

Dock Rumex sp.

Dog Canis Familiaris

Douglas-fir Pseudotsuga menziesii

Emory oak Quercus Emoryi

Engelmann spruce Picea Engelmanni

Evergreen Oak Querqus sp.

Fir Abies sp.

Fox Vulpes sp./Urocyon sp.

Goat Capra hircus

Grama grass Bouteloua gracilis sp.

Gambel oak Quercus Gambelii

Gray oak Quercus grisea

Grizzly bear Ursus horribilis

Hawk Accipitridae

Heron Ardeidae

Honey mesquite Prosopis juliflora

Jackrabbit Lepus sp.

Juniper Juniperus sp.

Macaw Ara sp.

Mammoth Mammuthus sp.

Mescal Agave sp.

Mesquite Prosopis sp.

Mesquite grass Panicum obtusum

Oak Quercus sp.

Ocotillo Fouquieria splendens
6 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006

Table 1.1. Continued.

Common name Scientific name

One-seed juniper Juniperus monosperma

Owl Strigiformes

Palmilla Yucca elata

Panther (Mountain Lion) Felis concolor

Pine Pinus sp.

Pinyon pine Pinus sp.

Ponderosa pine Pinus ponderosa

Prickly pear Opuntia sp.

Quaking Aspen Populus tremuloides

Rabbit-brush Chrysothamnus sp.

Rock Squirrel Spermophilus variegates

Salt-bush Atriplex sp.

Scarlet Macaw Ara macao

Skunk Mephitinae

Snakeweed Gutierrezia sp.

Soap-weed Yucca sp.

Sotol Dasylirion Wheeleri

Spruce Picea sp.

Squawfish Ptychocheilus lucius

Sycamore Platanus sp.

Tar-bush Flourensia cernua

Tiger salamander Ambystoma tigrinum

Turkey Meleagris gallopavo

Yucca Yucca sp.

Walnut Juglans sp.

White Pine Pinus Strobiformis

Willow Salix sp.

Wolf Canis lupus

Wolfberry Lycium sp.

Wood rat (packrat??) Neotoma

a

Plant Nomenclature according to Kearney and Peebles (1960) unless otherwise indicated.

b

Border Pinyon (Bailey and Hawksworth 1983) was described and distinguished from P. cembroides (Mexican Pinyon) after publication of Kearney 

and Peebles’ most recent edition (1960).
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 7

The major mountain ranges in the study area today were 

produced by Middle Miocene and younger extensional 

faulting. Faulting continued into the late Pleistocene 

as evidenced by fault scarps along the margins of the 

Animas, Hachita, and Playas Valleys. These long-term 

geologic events resulted in the present basin and range 

physiography of the Malpai Borderlands, as summarized 

by Hawley (1993).

The area is classified as Mexican Highland within the 

Basin and Range Province. Basins below 1,525 m (4,600 

ft) form the bulk of the Chihuahuan Desert region in the 

Mexican Highland Section (Hawley 1993: 40). Broad 

intermontane basins often drain internally into playas. 

Integrated drainages exist only in the San Bernardino 

Valley, which drains into the Rio Yaqui system to the 

south, and in nearby areas such as the Gila River drainage 

system north of the Borderlands. Roughly north-south 

trending mountain ranges separate the basins. Low 

gradient bajadas extend several kilometers from mountains and their pediments toward basin centers. The few 

sizable drainages in the area form alluvial fans that also 

extend outward into basins. Much of the ground surface 

is covered with gravels.

Post-Pleistocene Environmental 

Change____________________________

There are several, sometimes competing, models for 

post-Pleistocene environmental change in the Borderlands 

region. Models are derived from geomorphological 

reconstructions of pluvial lake history, paleofaunal 

studies, palynology, and analyses of packrat (Neotoma

sp.) middens. Climatic reconstructions from tree-ring 

data would be especially useful for archaeological 

studies; important new data encompassing much of the 

late prehistoric archaeological record for the Malpai 

Borderlands will soon be made available by Thomas 

Swetnam and his students.

Each approach to climatic reconstruction derives from 

a different body of information and provides a different 

perspective on change. Interpretations may be contradictory because of the spotty nature of databases, differing 

theoretical perspectives, and the lack of an integrated 

effort to reconstruct past environment. Furthermore, it 

may not be possible to relate climatic reconstructions 

directly to potential behavioral responses reflected in 

the archaeological records. The tree-ring record is a 

good example. Reconstructions are based on the Palmer 

Drought Severity Index (PDSI) for June because tree 

ring width is highly correlated with the severity of local 

spring drought. However, as discussed in the section on 

contemporary climate in this chapter, spring moisture 

was much less critical to prehistoric farmers dependent 

on summer rains, which show less variability from year 

to year.

Geomorphological Reconstructions of Pluvial 

Lakes

Three post-Pleistocene pluvial lakes existed in the 

Borderlands study area. These are Lake Hachita to the 

west of the Little Hachet Mountains, Lake Playas in 

the middle of the Playas Valley, and Lake Cloverdale 

Guadalupe Sanchez de Carpenter

A.C. MacWilliams

Chapter 2.

Borderlands Environment, Past and 

Present
8 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006

(San Luis Lake) in the San Luis Valley. Two main shore 

embankments have been identified around Lake Playas 

(Morrison 1991: 365). Fleischhauer and Stone (1982) state 

that this lake covered nearly 65 km

2

 (25 square miles) 

until about 4500 B.P., reappeared briefly about 3000 B.P., 

and again at 1000 B.P. High pluvial lake stands in the 

study area are shown in figure 2.1.

Reconstructions of two lake histories north of the 

Borderlands deserve mention. High-stands at Lake 

Cochise (Wilcox Playa) have been radiocarbon dated 

to 13,500 and 8900 B.P., and it has been an ephemeral 

playa since mid-Holocene times (Waters 1986; Waters and 

Woosley 1990: 163). Lake Animas in the lower Animas 

Valley is believed by Fleischhauer and Stone (1982: 9) to 

have had a similar history. As with Lake Playas, shoreline 

age is estimated by comparison of shoreline soils with 

soils of known age in other basins.

Implications of Faunal Remains for Pluvial 

Lake History

A 12,000 year stratified sequence of vertebrate fauna 

from Howell’s Ridge Cave in the Little Hachet Mountains 

in the northeastern corner of the Borderlands study area 

helps place the pluvial lake reconstructions in perspective (Van Devender 1995: 89–92; Van Devender and 

Worthington 1977). The cave is a vertical chimney in a 

steep limestone ridge on the dry lake bed of the Playas 

Valley. Thousands of bones and teeth of small vertebrates 

were continuously deposited in owl (Stragiformes) 

and hawk (Accipitridae) pellets during the entire cave 

sequence. Riparian fauna including Tiger salamander 

(Ambystoma tigrinum) and Colorado chum (Gila cf. 

robusta) indicate the playa contained perennial water 

from 12,000 to 4000 B.P., once again about 3000 B.P., and 

finally about 1000 B.P., supporting the geomorphological 

reconstruction by Fleishhauer and Stone (1982: 19).

Heavily disturbed desert grassland in portions 

of many Borderlands valley floors is dominated by 

creosote-bush (Larrea tridentate), salt-bush (Atriplex 

sp.), honey mesquite (Prosopis juliflora), yucca (Yucca

sp.), and tar-bush (Flourensia cernua). These shrubs 

appear to have been restricted to drainages in a grassy 

landscape prior to 1890 (Van Devender 1995: 90). 

Quantitative analyses of reptile bones from Howell’s 

Ridge Cave document similar increases in shrubs and 

succulents at 3900, 2500, and 990 B.P. (Van Devender 

and Worthington 1977).

Packrat Midden Studies

Packrat midden records from a variety of Chihuahuan 

Desert locations to the north and east of the study area 

provide evidence for the sequence of desert grassland 

development (Van Devender 1990; summarized in Van 

Devender 1995: 88–95; Van Devender and others 1987). 

Vegetation of the lower mountain slopes shifted from a 

pinyon-juniper woodland to oak-juniper woodland about 

Figure 2.1. Maximal extent of post-Pleistocene pluvial lakes in the study area.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 9

11,000 years ago and then to desert grassland about 8500 

years ago. Honey mesquite dispersed into the northern 

Chihuahuan Desert about 9000 years ago and widespread desertscrub—notably creosote-bush and ocotillo 

(Fouquieria splendens)—appeared in these grasslands 

about 4500 years ago.

These data appear to contradict a mid-Holocene 

Altithermal drought as postulated by Antevs (1955) on 

the basis of geological studies in the northern Great Basin. 

Instead of an Altithermal drought from 8500 to 4000 

B.P., Van Devender (1995: 89) suggests that the summer 

monsoons and desert grasslands were better developed 

than they are today, and in fact, attained their greatest 

area. This reconstruction also fits the faunal evidence 

from Howell’s Ridge Cave.

Palynological Reconstructions

On the basis of pollen sequences from early archaeological sites at Double Adobe, Lehner, and Murray Springs 

just to the west of the study area, Martin (1963a,b) 

also argued for a wetter mid-Holocene and, in fact, for 

the establishment of Chihuahuan Desert grasslands in 

southeastern Arizona by the terminal Pleistocene. This 

reconstruction based on records from basin floors indicates 

the presence of grasslands several thousand years earlier 

than Van Devender’s packrat midden interpretation. That 

middens do not directly monitor vegetation at such low 

elevation settings may be a factor in this discrepancy.

A study by Davis and others (2001) provides Holocene 

paleoecological data within the Borderlands. He reports 

cores from seven cienegas; six are adjacent to the study 

area and a seventh is from the Animas Creek Cienega on 

the Gray Ranch. Here, the basal 14C date is about 7000 

B.P. Corn (Zea mays) and agricultural weed pollen were 

recovered in a level dating approximately to 3400 B.P. 

(Davis and others 2001: 408).

A mid-Holocene increase in grass pollen is apparent. 

Davis and colleagues (2001) interpret this increase in 

grass frequencies, deteriorated pollen, and high fungal 

spore counts to indicate increased desiccation between 

7000 and 5000 B.P. After 5000 B.P., there is a gradual 

increase in aquatic plant pollen, and the same researchers suggest standing water was present in the Animas 

Creek Cienega between 3700 and 1900 B.P. Based on all 

seven cienegas, they summarize an expansion of aquatic 

vegetation at 3000, 1800, and 500 to 300 B.P.

Historic increase in wetland indicators coincides with 

a decrease in microscopic charcoal (Davis and others 

2001). Older sediments contain less organic material 

and fewer fungal spores, from which he concludes that 

annual prehistoric burning probably occurred. Before the 

historic period, frequent burning by indigenous peoples 

prevented woody plants and bulrush (Scirpus sp.) from 

reaching maturity. Pollen profiles also document prehistoric disturbance of cienega environments through the 

presence of corn and agricultural weeds.

Historical Changes to the Grassland

As a result of historic land use, Southwest grasslands 

have experienced rapid and extensive modification. The 

native grass growth has declined, and trees and woody 

shrubs, such as mesquite (Prosopis sp.), acacia (Acacia

sp.), burro-weed (Aplopappus tenuisecta), snakeweed 

(Gutierrezia sp.), and one‐seed juniper (Juniperus monosperma), have increased, replacing the grassland. Bahre 

(1991) believes that the areal extent of grasslands has not 

changed significantly, but that grass has been replaced 

by the scrubby trees and shrubs since the 1870s. The 

mechanisms by which this increase has taken place are 

not well understood, but the increase of the woody component is attributed to a combination of overgrazing and 

wildfire suppression. Other factors that have contributed 

to changes in the grassland include agricultural clearing, 

urban and rural development, range management policies, and the introduction of exotic plant species (Bahre 

1991; Brown 1950; Brown 1994b; Cornelius 1988; Gould 

1951; Hennessy and others 1983; Humphrey 1958, 1985). 

All of these factors affect the potential human resource 

distributions between historic and prehistoric times.

Precipitation and Growing Season____

The Malpai Borderlands has a continental desert 

climate with distinct seasons. Valley locations receive 

about 250 mm (9.75 inches) of annual precipitation (Gabin 

and Lesperance n.d.; Sellers and others 1985; Tuan and 

others 1969). Over 60 percent of the annual rainfall occurs in the summer (fig 2.2). A marked spring drought 

during March, April, May, and June is characteristic. 

Wind intensity is also greatest during the spring months, 

increasing evapotranspiration. These high westerly winds 

spur spring dust storms, particularly in the western portion 

of the study area.

Precipitation totals for the 12 study area weather stations are strongly correlated with elevation (Gabin and 

Lesperance n.d.; Tuan and others 1969). There is also a 

marked reduction in precipitation from south to north as 

lesser mountain masses stimulate less orographic rainfall. 

Drawing upon higher precipitation in the mountains, 

drainages with upland watersheds carry the majority of 

water available to farmers. The spring drought is sufficiently pronounced, and snowmelt in moderate-sized 
10 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006

mountain masses is sufficiently limited that few drainages 

from the uplands could have supported spring crops. 

Although there is high year-to-year variability in annual 

rainfall, the amount and timing of summer storms is 

relatively predictable (Shaw 1993).

Summertime temperatures often exceed 40 oC (90 oF) 

and wintertime lows are often below zero. Although 

average growing season length is 215 days in some lower 

valley locations, temperatures as well as the seasonality 

of precipitation restrict the effective length for agriculture. In many parts of the study area, cold air drainage is 

pronounced (Mueller 1988: 28). A significant chance for 

killing frosts occurs relatively late in the spring and early 

in the fall. For instance, there is a 5 percent probability of 

a frost until the third week of May near Animas and a 5 

percent probability again by early October. This interval 

leaves only 140 days where there is less than a one in 20 

chance for a crop-killing freeze.

Low winter rainfall, an intense spring drought, and a 

frost threat as late as mid-May suggest that crops generally were not planted in the study area until after the 

onset of the summer monsoon season in July. Even so, 

planting in response to the arrival of summer rains was the 

previous pattern of Tohono O’odham farmers who 

depended on summer-dominant rainfall and hydrological sources similar to those available in the Borderlands 

(Bryan 1929; Castetter and Bell 1942; Nabhan 1983, 

1986). Early frost or a delay in summer thunderstorms 

must have posed risks to successful harvests. Elevational 

situations above the limits of cold air inversion may have 

presented localized opportunities for early plantings where 

high water tables or springs permitted irrigation.

Borderlands Biotic Communities______

Following the classification system of Brown and 

others (1979; Brown 1994a), several biotic communities 

dominate the Borderlands study area. Semidesert grassland is present in the San Bernardino Valley, in the lower 

Animas Valley, and throughout most of the Playas Valley. 

Plains grassland is concentrated in the upper Animas 

Valley. Chihuahuan desertscrub occurs as patches in the 

northeastern sector of the study area, and in the lower 

section of the San Bernardino Valley. Riparian vegetation 

is found along drainages. In some cases in closed basins, 

playas often display sparse, salt-tolerant species. Patches 

of Madrean evergreen woodland occur in the mountains 

above approximately 1,515 m (5,000 ft). Petran montane 

conifer forest occurs only at the highest elevations of 

Animas Peak, which rises to 2,519 m (8,519 ft) above 

mean sea level (figs 2.3, 2.4, and 2.5).

Figure 2.2. Annual distribution of rainfall for weather stations in the study area.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 11

Figure 2.3. Vegetation map of the San Bernardino Valley.
12 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006

Figure 2.4. Vegetation map of the Animas and San Luis Valleys.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 13

Figure 2.5. Vegetation map of the Playas Valley.
14 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006

Grassland Biotic Community

Semidesert Grassland—The semidesert grassland 

is the most widespread Borderlands biome on the basin 

floors and in the lower elevations of the mountain ranges. 

The semidesert grassland is a transitional zone between 

plains grassland and Chihuahuan desertscrub and shares 

some of the floral and faunal constituents of both. It is 

nonetheless a distinctive and separate biome (Brown 

1994b: 126–127). According to Dick‐Peddie (1993:107), 

much of the desert grassland and desertscrub land in New 

Mexico occupy areas that were previously grassland. It 

is difficult to determine recent successional‐disturbed 

desert grassland invaded by woody shrubs from original 

desert grassland (Brown 1994b: 127).

In general, the semidesert grassland covers gentle and 

moderate slopes of coarse sandy soils derived from extrusive rocks (Cornelius 1988: 1). Where it makes contact 

with the Chihuahuan desertscrub, it creates a complex 

and alternating landscape pattern over many miles. At 

its upper elevations, this biome usually makes contact 

with evergreen woodland or plains grassland. Within 

Chihuahuan desertscrub, semidesert grassland occurs in 

isolated pockets as the vegetation of enclosed‐drainage 

playas (Bahre 1991: 23; Brown 1994b: 123).

Formerly, the grasses were perennials with reproduction principally from seed. Heavy grazing has reduced 

these grasses and increased low-growing sod grasses such 

as Mesquite grass (Panicum obtusum). The semidesert 

grassland is a perennial grass‐scrub dominated landscape. 

Because the rainy seasons are short and somewhat uncertain, grasses and shrubs tend to grow and set seed rapidly, 

with most of the growth taking place during August. The 

vegetation ranges from pure grass landscapes to any 

combination of shrub, trees, and cactus. The community 

physiognomy of semidesert grassland is one of a landscape 

broken up by the uneven stature of large, diverse, and 

well‐spaced scrub species (Bourgeron and others 1995: 

20; Brown 1994b: 127; Humphrey 1958: 195). There are 

vast areas where climax grasses have been much reduced 

by competition with a wide variety of shrub, small tree, 

and cactus life forms.

Shrubs and small trees are locally important. In general, with the exception of mesquite and some juniper 

(Juniperus sp.) at the higher elevations, trees are restricted 

to riparian habitats. Stem and leaf succulents, including 

sotol (Dasylirion Wheeleri), agave (Agave sp.), bear-grass 

(Nolina sp.), and yucca species, are particularly well 

represented and characteristic of semidesert grassland in 

some places. Palmilla (Yucca elata) is often a particularly 

visible plant in the landscape (Brown 1994b: 127). In 

the mid‐elevation western slope foothills of the Animas 

Mountains, a semidesert grassland with abundant agave 

forms a grass‐century plant mosaic (Bourgeron and 

others 1995: 19).

Plains Grassland—The plains grassland biome within 

the study area is present in the upper Animas Valley and 

the San Luis Valley. These areas of plains grassland 

represent the southwesternmost extension of the North 

American Prairie. The primary upper grassland contact 

is with woodland; the lower elevation contact is with 

semidesert grassland (Brown 1994b: 115; Dick-Peddie 

1993). Almost all the plains grassland is composed 

of short‐grassland communities. These communities 

were significantly altered by cattle grazing and fire suppression, resulting in the current uncluttered perennial 

grass‐dominant landscape (Brown 1994b).

The principal grass constituents are perennial 

sod‐forming species of which blue grama (Bouteloua 

gracilis) and other gramas (Bouteloua sp.) are usually 

important. Shrubs such as salt-bush, Cholla (Opuntia sp.), 

soap-weed (Yucca sp.), rabbit-brush (Chrysothammus

sp.), and snakeweed may be scattered throughout the 

landscape. The snakeweeds now form extensive disclimax communities over many miles of former grassland. 

Junipers also have invaded large acreages (Brown 1994b: 

119). Cacti are locally represented in patches of plains 

grassland of the study area.

The San Luis Valley located south of the Animas 

Valley is bisected by the international border. Much of its 

area was encompassed by a former playa, and its unique 

vegetation is Great Plains grassland composed. In eastern 

New Mexico, dry and irrigated farming have greatly 

reduced the amount of plains grassland. The vegetation 

is widely in a state of succession shifting toward desert 

grassland (Dick‐Peddie 1993: 104).

Chihuahuan Desertscrub Biotic Community

Areas of Chihuahuan desertscrub are covered with 

a low scrub vegetation. The vegetation ranges from a 

creosote-bush‐dominated scrub on gently sloping plains 

to a more species‐rich mixed desertscrub on upland rocky 

bajadas. The most common plant association of the region 

is creosote scrub. This association occurs on extensive 

areas of intermontane arid alluvial or outwash plains and 

bajadas that are dry most of the year. Creosote-bush is 

often quantitatively or at least visually dominant. These 

areas may have either sandy or, commonly, clayish soils 

that are generally of uniform texture. The diversity of 

plants increases in deeper soils and along minor drainage 

where tar-bush, acacia, mesquite, and catclaw (Acacia 

Greggii) frequently grow. The only other desertscrub 

communities that occur in a widespread area are salt-bush 
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 15

on fine‐grained soils of valley bottoms and open stands of 

shrub mesquite on sandy, wind‐eroded hummocks (Brown 

1994c: 173). Outcrops, arroyos, bajadas, and foothill 

habitats are populated by a rich aggregate of shrubs and 

frequently succulents. Common plants include yuccas, 

sotols, agaves, and bear-grass.

In southern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona are 

large areas that supported grassland prior to the second 

half of the last century. Today these areas are occupied by 

Chihuahuan desertscrub vegetation. This rapid vegetation 

shift appears to be the result of large concentrations of 

domestic livestock of the late 1800s. It is difficult to tell 

whether present desertscrub areas are occupied by original 

or recently established Chihuahuan desertscrub.

Madrean Evergreen Woodland Biotic 

Community

This mild winter‐wet summer woodland in southeastern 

Arizona and southwestern New Mexico is a northward 

extension of similar vegetation in the Sierra Madre of 

Mexico. The arboreal species of the evergreen woodland 

are locally varied combinations of oak (Quercus sp.), 

juniper, and pines (Pinus sp.) with lower elevation species 

grading upward into pine species of higher elevations. 

Emory oak (Quercus Emoryi), gray oak (Quercus grisea), 

alligator juniper (Juniperus Deppeana), border pinyon 

(pinus discolor), and Chihuahua pine (Pinus chihuahuana) 

are important species within the Borderlands (Brown 

1994d: 59; Bourgeron and others 1995).

The mountains of the Borderlands region are socalled sky-islands of woodland vegetation surrounded 

by grassland and desertscrub at the lower elevations. 

Many of the cacti and leaf succulents of the semidesert 

grassland extend well up into the Madrean evergreen 

woodland. Interior chaparral species can also be present 

and are especially prevalent in thin eroded soils and on 

limestone (Brown 1994d: 63).

Petran Montane Conifer Forest

Montane conifer forest is confined to an isolated 

area of the highest Borderlands peaks in the Animas 

Mountains. Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa), Douglasfir (Pseudotsuga taxifolia), and aspen (Populus sp.) are 

prominent trees in these locales (Bourgeron and others 

1995). Aspen tends to occur in disturbed and open habitats 

among other forest vegetation types.

Riparian Biotic Community

Riparian communities in southeastern Arizona and 

southwestern New Mexico cross-cut the entire range 

of vegetation zones. The communities are composed of 

unique riparian species as well as species that are common 

elsewhere. Riparian vegetation forms corridors of highly 

diverse habitats that are attractive to animals (Dick-Peddie 

1993: 145, 147; Minckley and Brown 1994; Szaro 1989: 

70); the longer the stream and the greater the elevation 

gradient, the more diverse the overall pattern (Szaro 1989: 

87). In the Borderlands, riparian vegetation is restricted 

to drainage systems, most of which sustain water only 

occasionally, and the enclosed basins, or playas.

In the natural vegetation of the Borderlands region, 

cottonwood (Pupulus sp.) and willow (Salix sp.) 

commonly share dominance among riparian trees of low to 

medium elevations (Dick‐Peddie 1993: 151). Other trees 

that are locally important in the better watered riparian 

communities of the Borderlands include oak, walnut 

(Juglans sp.), sycamore (Platanus sp.), and ash (Fraxinus

sp.) (Szaro 1989). Floodplains have been heavily affected 

by historic activities over the past 150 years. One of the 

most obvious manifestations is the rapid and extensive 

invasion of alien shrub or tree species.

Internally drained depressions with watersheds of 

diverse size support relatively mesic habitats. The vegetation also could be included under grassland or scrub 

vegetation but occurs in response to the conditions of a 

drainage system. The typical shrubs of the closed basins 

are salt-bush, and occasionally wolfberry (Lycium sp.) 

occurs as a codominant; ground cover is sparse, often with 

clumps of grass (Dick-Peddie 1993: 153; Swanson and 

others 1988). Higher saline soils not subject to flooding 

may support an extensive grassland of specialized species. 

Shrubs and succulents are scattered around the edges of 

the playas on low Pleistocene beach ridges.

Gray Ranch Vegetation Study

An ecological inventory was performed for the Gray 

Ranch within the Borderlands study area (Bourgeron 

and others 1995). The ranch is a 130,000‐ha (320,000-

acre) cattle operation that includes a portion of the 

upper Animas Valley, the southern half of the Animas 

Mountains including Animas Peak, and a portion of the 

Playas Valley, incorporating approximately 35 percent 

of the study area. Vegetation patterns representative 

of the Borderlands region as a whole are represented. 

Bourgeron and others (1995) carried out the inventory 

using the Western Regional Vegetation Classification 

System (Bourgeron and Engelking n.d.). Their findings 

are summarized in table 2.1. This study is significant 

for its systematic observations of study area plant 

communities that refine more general descriptions of 

regional patterns.
16 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006

Soil Types__________________________

In semiarid and arid regions, soil variation is correlated 

with slope and topographic position; these variables 

are related to topographic gradients, nutrition rating, 

and fertility (Bourgeron and others 1995). In southern 

Arizona, soils that support grasses usually contained a 

larger percentage of clay (25 to 50 percent), and have a 

higher percent available moisture (11 percent) than soils 

of shrub communities. Shrubs, and particularly creosotebush, are most abundant on sites where shallow, sandy soils 

with low available moisture, caliche hardpan, or erosion 

pavement result in relatively unfavorable moisture for 

the growth of other species (Johnson 1957: 39).

Table 2.1. Vegetation classification (alliance level) at the Gray Ranch and adjacent ecoregion.a

Evergreen needle-leaved forest with conical crowns

Pseudotsuga menziesii alliance (Douglas fir)

Cold-deciduous alluvial forest

Platanus wrightii alliance (Arizona sycamore)

Evergreen coniferous woodlands with rounded crowns

Juniperus deppeana alliance (Alligator bark juniper)

Pinus dicolor alliance 

Pinus engelmannii alliance (Apache pine)

Pinus ponderosa alliance (ponderosa pine)

Cold-deciduous alluvial woodland

Populus fremontii alliance (Fremont cottonwood)

Evergreen broad-leaved shrublands

Arctostaphylos pungens alliance (point-leaf manzanita)

Quercus arizonica-Quercus grisea alliance (Arizona white oak-gray oak)

Quercus emoryi alliance (emory oak) 

Quercus toumeyi alliance (Toumey oak)

Temperate deciduous shrublands

Cercocarpus montanus alliance (mountain mahogany)

Deciduous subdesert scrublands without succulents

Rhus microphylla alliance (littleleaf sumac)

Deciduous subdesert scrublands with succulents

Fouquieria splendens alliance (ocotillo) 

Prosopis glandulosa alliance (honey mesquite)

Mid-grass steppe with shrubs (shrub canopy cover is 11 to 25 percent)

Cercocarpus Montanus alliance (mountain mahogany) 

Quercus toumeyi alliance (Toumey oak)

Mid-grass steppe without woody plants (tree or shrub canopy cover is 0 to 

10 percent)

Bouteloua curtipendula alliance (sideoats grama grass)

Hilaria mutica alliance (tobosa grass)

Munhlenbergia emersleyi alliance (bush muhly grass)

Panicum bulbosum alliance (panic grass)

Panicum obtusum alliance (vine mesquite grass)

Sporobolus flexuoses alliance (Sacaton grass)

Sporobolus wrightii alliance (giant Sacaton grass)

Short-grass steppe without woody plants (tree or shrub canopy cover is 0 to 10 percent)

Bouteloua gracilis alliance (blue grama grass)

Bouteloua eriopoda alliance (black grama grass)

Bouteloua hirsuta alliance (hairy grama grass)

a

Modified from Bourgeron and others 1995: 51–55.

Soil Types of the San Bernardino Valley

Because soil surveys conform to state boundaries, the soil classifications and descriptions for the 

San Bernardino Valley are different from those for 

the Borderlands valleys in New Mexico. The middle 

section of the San Bernardino Valley is characterized 

by a Bonita-Graham-Rimrock Association. These are 

shallow-to-deep, fine-textured soils on plains and hills. 

This association consists of well-drained soils formed 

in colluvium and alluvium weathered from basalt, andesite, ash-flow tuffs, cinder, and related volcanic rocks. 

Riparian zones are prominent in this valley because there 

are three significant perennial drainages that cross the 
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 17

valley and contain alluvial soils conducive to farming. 

Silver Creek flows from the Pedregosa Mountains, 

Black Draw originates in the Chiricahua Mountains, 

and Cottonwood Draw from the Peloncillo Mountains 

(Hendricks 1985: 108).

The west slopes of the Peloncillo Mountains, including 

the piedmont, are represented by Lithic torriorthentsLithic Haplustolls-Rock Outcrop Association. The soils 

are shallow, cobbly and gravelly, with generally steep 

slopes and rocky outcrops on hills and mountains. The 

soils are weathered from many different parent rocks including granite, gneiss, rhyolite, andesite, tuffs, limestone, 

sandstone, and basalt (Hendricks 1985: 99).

Soil Types of the Upper Animas Valley and the 

San Luis Valley

Figure 2.6 illustrates soil types for these valleys. 

The San Luis Valley, a drained lakebed on the southern 

edge of the Upper Animas Valley, extends to both sides 

of the international border and contains a unique soil 

type within the study area, Anamite silty clay loam. 

Cloverdale Loam, Cloverdale-Stellar Association and 

Cloverdale Stony Clay loam soils are distributed in the 

lower slopes and on the basin floor of the southern half 

of the Upper Animas Valley. The Cloverdale Series are 

well-drained soils on old alluvial fans in upland areas. 

This soil is formed from materials derived mainly from 

rhyolite and basalt. The Cloverdale-Stellar Association 

has few limitations for agricultural practices, and almost 

any crop can be planted (Cox 1973: 12).

In the northern section of the Upper Animas Valley 

on the piedmont and alluvial plain, from approximately 

Animas Peak to the north, the most common soil type is 

the Eba series. The Eba series consists of well-drained 

soils formed in old cobbly alluvium from mixed 

igneous rocks, mainly rhyolite. Eba soils are gravelly 

loams and are not used for agriculture at the present time 

(Cox 1973: 12).

Animas Creek divides the valley into eastern and 

western sectors. The alluvial plain of Animas Creek 

and its tributaries are represented by the Pima-Hawkeye 

complex. This soil complex is mainly in the upper Animas 

Valley. It occurs along Deer Creek and Whitewater 

Creek at the southeastern end of the Animas Mountains 

piedmont. These soils are used for irrigated cropland 

(Cox 1973: 30).

Three patches of Yturbide soils are located around the 

ancient San Luis Playa. The Yturbide Series consists of 

excessively drained soils that formed in coarse-textured 

alluvium on alluvial fans and slopes. A few acres have 

been used for irrigated cropland (Cox 1973: 42).

The terraces and lower slopes of the northern half of the 

Upper Animas Valley are composed of Forrest gravelly 

loam and the Forrest-Stellar Association. The Forrest 

soil is found on slightly elevated ridges, and Stellar soil 

is associated with the broad swales that occur between 

the ridges. Within the Animas Valley, these associations 

support short grasses and leaf succulents such as agave 

and yucca (Cox 1973: 15).

Soil Description of the Playas Valley

There are four soil types in the Playa Valley (fig. 2.7): 

the Mohave Series, the Hondale Series, the Mimbres 

Series, and the Yturbide Series (Cox 1973). The most 

widespread soil of the southern half of the Playas Valley 

is the Mohave Series. Mohave soils are substantial in the 

plain formed between the east piedmont of the Animas 

Mountains and the Playas Lake. These are well-drained 

soils formed in old alluvium from mixed igneous rocks. 

Mohave soils are now used for irrigated cropland.

The Mimbres Series are well-drained soils developed 

in old alluvium from mixed igneous and sedimentary 

rocks on alluvial bottoms and occur as small patches 

along most of the Playas Valley bottom. Mimbres soils 

are used for irrigated cropland. Soils of the Yturbide 

Series are also distributed in small intermittent patches. 

These are poorly suited to modern cultivated crops (Cox 

1973: 42, 50).

Hondale soils are well-drained soils near playas. In 

the Playas Valley, saline Hondale soils surround the 

Playas Lake and extend to the south. Higher saline soils 

not subject to flooding support extensive grasslands of 

alkali-sacaton grass (Sporobolus airoides).

Study Area Lithic Resources__________

Resources suitable for flaked stone tools such as chert, 

felsite/rhyolite, and basalt are widespread in the study 

area. Abundant chert zones are present in southeastern 

Arizona; for example, the Swisshelm Formation that 

outcrops near Boss Ranch (Boyd 1978: 57–58) would 

likely have been an important source of raw materials. 

Usable nodular cherts also are present in the Keating 

Formation of the Pedregosa, Big Hachet, and Peloncillo 

Mountains (Armstrong and Mamet 1978: 6, 186) and in 

the Black Prince Formation and Horquilla Limestone 

of the Big Hachett Mountains (Drewes and others 

1988: C12). Pleistocene terraces as well as channels of 

current watercourses are likely locations of secondary 
18 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006

Figure 2.6. Soil types of the Upper Animas and San Luis Valleys.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 19

Figure 2.7. Soil types of the Playas Valley.
20 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006

sources, even where the primary formations are not 

widely exposed.

Field reports (Fitting 1972a), file descriptions of 10 

sites in the Borderlands database, and reconnaissance 

related to this overview suggest intensively used quarry 

localities for chert, felsite/rhyolite, and basalt materials 

throughout the study area, but no systematic study of 

material acquisition patterns has yet been undertaken for 

the Borderlands. Although no quarries for groundstone 

materials have been reported, basalts suitable for this 

purpose are widespread. Numerous basaltic flows are 

reported in the San Bernardino and Animas Valleys.

Antelope Wells volcanic glass is excellent for flaking 

and was widely sought during the late prehistoric period 

(Findlow and Bolognese 1980; Hughes 1988; Shackley 

1988). Colors include translucent brown-green, dark gray, 

green-brown banded, and opaque black. The obsidian 

occurs as nodules (Apache tears) in the lower portions 

of three formations: Gillespie Tuff, Felsite formation, 

and Park Tuff (Findlow and Bolognese 1980: 228). 

Findlow and Bolognese (1980) observed obsidian nodules 

in Clanton Draw at the eastern edge of the Peloncillo 

Mountains and elsewhere in that range. Shackley (1988: 

761) reports that the primary source for this material is 

along Deer Creek in the southeastern Animas Mountains, 

but that nodules also occur along Cloverdale Creek and 

elsewhere in the Peloncillo Mountains. Nodules also 

occur 15 to 20 km (9 to 13 miles) east from Deer Creek 

and south into Chihuahua (Shackley 1988: 761). Current 

distributional information indicates at least two noncontiguous sources in separate mountain ranges.

Turquoise is a lithic resource that strongly deserves 

further investigation. An extensive turquoise quarry is 

reported on the east side of the Little Hatchet Mountains 

at about 1,465 m (4,800 ft) above sea level (Clemons and 

Mack 1988: 20; Hill 1938). Known as the “Old Aztec” 

workings (Anonymous 1909: 762), extensive remains 

of prehistoric mining activity are present; Weigand and 

Harbottle (1993: 163) report about 200 chambered mines. 

The temporal span of these activities is unknown. No good 

description of the quality or character of this turquoise 

could be found in the literature.

Salt likely was available in the surroundings of playas. 

McCluney (1973) makes passing reference to inhabitants 

of the region collecting salt in such locations at the time 

of Coronado’s expedition in the 16th century; the documentary reference or other source for this statement is 

unknown. Salt figured prominently in historic Southwest 

exchange, however, and its acquisition is even accorded 

a ritual context by puebloan groups such as the Hopi. Salt 

collecting probably was a patterned activity over long 

intervals and should be carefully considered in playa 

investigations.

Settlement Potential of Borderlands 

Valleys____________________________

A limited number of late ceramic habitation sites have 

been recorded in the Borderlands (fig 3.3), although this 

is by far the best known prehistoric interval. The distribution is heavily biased toward the largest sites and a few 

more thoroughly examined locales. The distribution of 

smaller settlements is so incomplete that generalizations 

about areas capable of supporting correspondingly small 

populations are difficult. Despite the lack of systematic 

archaeological studies, most of the largest villages probably are recognized (chapter 3).

The locations of the largest villages presumably mark 

relatively favored locales in which it was possible to support the most aggregated populations of the archaeological 

sequence. None are on perennial streams, but, with one 

exception, are on large ephemeral drainages near relatively 

wide stretches of floodplain amenable to small-scale 

irrigation. The exception, Pendleton Ruin, is on an alluvial fan of Cloverdale Creek in the San Luis Valley, 

where extensive floodwater farming would have been 

possible. The largest villages are all within grassland or 

desert scrub vegetation. This association reflects a strong 

need for proximity to the wild resources of low elevation 

zones as much as: (1) locations in a downstream position 

receiving combined flow from the upstream watershed, 

and (2) a sufficiently low gradient to successfully divert 

water onto fields with small canals or floodwater ditches. 

The following section further describes and preliminarily analyzes the potential of each study area valley for 

agricultural settlements, based on physical features and 

recorded site locations.

San Bernardino Valley

The San Bernardino Valley is bordered on the west 

by the massive Chiricahuas and Pedregosas (outside the 

study area) and the Perilla Mountains. The Peloncillo 

and Guadalupe Mountains are to the east. The valley 

continues south into Mexico. This broad Borderlands 

basin has no mid-valley drainage that combines runoff 

from the mountains to both east and west. Streams from 

the northern portions of the mountain ranges drain north 

and enter the adjacent and interconnected San Simon 

Valley.

In the southern part of the San Bernardino Valley 

within the study area, drainages flow to the south. Near 
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 21

the border with Mexico, streams from the mountains on 

both sides and streams draining a large mid-valley area 

begin to converge, a trend that continues south into the 

Mexican part of the basin. Black Draw, Silver Creek, 

and Cottonwood Draw are the largest drainages. Making 

this area even more amenable to agricultural use, the 

water table becomes increasingly shallow to the south 

(Arizona Department of Water Resources 1974), and it 

is shallowest of all beneath the San Bernardino Ranch. 

This locale was settled in the Spanish Colonial period 

and thereafter in historic times when springs were developed for irrigation. Sites of a variety of prehistoric 

periods, including the Slaughter Ranch site, cluster in 

the vicinity. Large sites are in the Mexican portion of 

the valley as well.

Sites near the middle of the San Bernardino Valley 

within the study area are located along southerly drainages originating in the Chiricahuas. These mountains 

are larger than any of the other study area ranges and 

create a greater orographic rainfall effect. Farther north, 

a site is recorded along a stream heading north from 

the Peloncillos. Other farming settlements are probable 

in similar locations along the mountain fronts and on 

tributaries, as drainages with upland watersheds emerge 

and flow onto the bajada. Possible prehistoric hot springs 

in the Douglas area (Swanberg 1978: 350) may have 

attracted special use.

The vegetation of the San Bernardino Valley is primarily semidesert grassland. Chihuahuan desertscrub 

occupies a southernmost sector below the mountains and 

near the border. The current development of desertscrub 

in this area may have been exacerbated by a long history 

of grazing. Livestock were introduced here in Colonial 

times (chapter 5) and ranching activities continue to be 

centered in the area of springs fed by the converging 

watercourses. Conditions in the past may have favored 

grassland more than conditions of today.

Animas and San Luis Valleys

The Animas Valley is bounded by the Peloncillo and 

Guadalupe Mountains to the west. The Animas Mountains 

are on the east. The Upper Animas Valley lies within 

the study area and is so designated by reference to its 

upstream position in a northward drainage pattern. The 

Animas Valley is conjoined without internal barriers 

with the San Luis Valley, which continues south into 

Mexico. A drainage divide separates the two valleys. The 

San Luis Valley receives water flowing south from the 

Peloncillos, a mid-basin catchment, and a narrow strip 

along the western edge of the Animas range.

The drainage divide between the valleys coincides with 

a large, transverse sandy ridge known as the Indian Dam. 

This natural feature marks the former maximal shoreline 

of a pluvial lake in the San Luis Valley. The dunes on 

the ridge contain numerous surface and partially buried 

artifact scatters, apparently representing most of the 

prehistoric sequence. Active springs are a few miles west 

of the San Luis Mountains near the Mexican border.

In the southeastern quadrant of the Peloncillo 

Mountains, multiple habitation sites have been recorded 

along Cloverdale Creek past the point where it emerges 

onto the valley slope. These include the large Pendleton 

Ruin on the fan and the Cloverdale Ruin farther upstream. 

The relatively broad, flat floodplain of Cloverdale Creek 

intrudes into and is surrounded by the mountain mass, 

thus receiving the benefit of higher orographic rainfall 

as well as the runoff from a large upland watershed. 

The plains grassland vegetation type of the valley floor 

extends upstream along an appreciable length of the 

floodplain, where resources of higher elevation zones 

also are conveniently accessible.

The San Luis Valley and adjacent segment of the 

Upper Animas Valley support a plains grassland vegetation, grading into a semidesert grassland farther to the 

north in the study area. Grassy forage is optimal among 

Borderlands basins. Today, antelope are most visible in 

this part of the study area.

Beginning near the southern end of the Animas Valley, 

drainages from the Animas and Peloncillo mountains 

join to form Animas Creek. The Animas Valley is unique 

among Borderlands basins in possessing such a well-integrated network with a primary drainage running almost 

throughout its length. Nevertheless, flow in Animas Creek 

is not perennial (Reeder 1957).

Habitation sites are recorded near the midsection of 

both mountain ranges. One settlement is situated on a 

tributary near the Peloncillo mountain front, and others, 

including Clanton Draw and Box Canyon, are located 

along Animas Creek. Farther to the north in the Upper 

Animas Valley, residential settlements again occur on 

tributaries from the Animas Mountains and along Animas 

Creek. The tributaries likely supplied short diversions of 

agricultural water at wider points in the floodplain and 

floodwater farming on alluvial fans. Optimal stretches 

of Animas Creek probably permitted modest irrigation. 

Sites in addition to those currently known seem almost a 

certainty along eastern and western mountain fronts and 

tributaries, and along the length of Animas Creek.

A shallow perched water table exists in the Upper 

Animas Valley, whereas ground water flow is largely 

unconfined in the Lower Animas Valley with the exception 
22 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006

of an area just north of the town of Animas (Hawkins 

and Stephens 1983: 734). Seasonal and more extended 

boggy conditions occur in the areas of highest water table, 

including the Gray Ranch and Maddox Ranch cienegas 

along the margins of Animas Creek.

The only montane conifer forest in the Borderlands 

occurs on Animas Peak. Past this peak to the north, the low 

basin vegetation is semidesert grassland. Also north from 

the peak, agave is abundant on the low western slopes of 

the Animas Mountains (Bourgeron and others 1995).

Playas Valley

The Playas Valley is bordered by the Animas 

Mountains on the west. To the east, a series of smaller and 

disconnected mountains bound the basin. From north to 

south are the Little Hatchet Mountains, the Big Hatchet 

Mountains, and the Alamo Hueco Mountains. Together, 

these are of smaller mass than the major Borderlands 

ranges and produce less of an orographic effect on 

precipitation.

The Playas Valley is marked by internal drainage. Today 

there are two major concentrations of runoff in the Playas 

Valley proper and one outside of it, to the east of the Big 

and Little Hatchet Mountains. The largest playa within 

the basin is to the west of the Little Hatchet Mountains, 

receiving drainage from both sides. The other large playa 

is to the west of the Big Hatchet Mountains. A third small 

playa is the destination of streams flowing west from the 

Alamo Hueco Mountains.

The Animas Mountains provide the largest upland 

watersheds for drainages serving settlements in the Playas 

Valley. A large catchment in the southeastern sector of this 

range culminates in Deer Creek, with a relatively broad, 

flat floodplain along its final reaches in the mountains. 

Joyce Well and the Culberson Ruin are located on this 

segment of Deer Creek.

A cluster of habitations sites in the vicinity of the 

Timberlake Ruin have been recorded near the middle 

of the Animas range, where drainages extend onto the 

bajada. Although the mountains narrow and watersheds 

become smaller to the north, settlements are likely along 

the mountain front and adjacent bajadas. Sites have been 

discovered in similar situations along the skirts of the 

Alamo Hueco Mountains. To date, no habitation sites 

have been registered along the western edges of the Big 

or Little Hatchet Mountains or their tributaries but likely 

are present.

Basin-floor vegetation of the Playas Valley is semidesert grassland throughout. Preceramic camps or habitations 

might be anticipated along the shorelines of Pleistocene 

lakes now represented by the remnant playas. Specialized 

plants of saline and seasonally moist soils along playa 

margins also may have attracted the earliest farmers and 

even later inhabitants; it appears that the latest Holocene 

highstands of the lakes during the agricultural era may 

have produced persistently moist habitats and true aquatic 

resources.

Closing Observations________________

Important resources such as water, arable land, key 

plant and animal foods, and useful minerals have patchy 

distributions in the Malpai Borderlands. Alluvial valley 

floors are broad and have relatively homogenous vegetation cover. These valleys are bounded by high, linear, 

and abruptly rising mountain ranges that create spatially 

compressed biotic diversity because of the rapid ascent 

of the uplands. These diverse upland resources have 

restricted distributions often distant from the arable land 

on the valley floor. Agriculturalists wanting to procure 

upland resources would have traveled several days, or 

developed regular regional exchange. Likewise, hunting 

and gathering societies dependent on seasonal resources 

would have required large territories involving at least 

biseasonal residential movements from low valley floors 

to mountain bases.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 23

History of Research_________________

Systematic archaeology in the Malpai Borderlands 

begins with D. D. Gaillard’s (1896) map of the elevated 

Cloverdale Playa beachline in the San Luis Valley. During 

his involvement with the U.S.-Mexico International 

Border Survey, Gailard was drawn to this feature by 

local ranchers’ reports of a massive Native American 

dam. Familiar with the scale of prehistoric irrigation in 

the Phoenix Basin, he accepted the raised beachline as 

evidence of a massive water control construction and 

reported his findings in the American Anthropologist. The 

dam was almost immediately recognized as a prominent 

but natural topographic feature by a variety of geographers 

and archaeologists, such as Ellsworth Huntington (1914) 

and E. B. Sayles (n.d.). Nonetheless, the Cloverdale 

Indian Dam continues to appear in listings of prehistoric 

Southwestern reservoirs and other water control features 

(for example Crown 1987a: 220).

Archaeological reconnaissances in the study area from 

the 1920s to as late as the 1960s were intended to document the northern extent of the Chihuahuan polychrome 

tradition (Brand 1943; Carey 1955, 1956; Kidder and 

others 1949; Sauer and Brand 1930; Sayles 1936) or 

were the byproducts of several excavation programs 

in the boot heel region of New Mexico (Lambert and 

Ambler 1961; McCluney 1965a). Generally, the reports 

for these surveys disclose repeated visits to the same 

large late prehistoric pueblos, and publications provide 

minimal descriptive detail and locational information. 

When available, however, archival notes and records of 

these investigators hold the potential for important clues 

to features and site structure no longer visible because 

of vandalism and other degrading forces.

Systematic surveys have been infrequent. Frank 

Findlow and Suzanne De Atley (De Atley 1980; De Atley 

and Findlow 1982; Findlow and De Atley 1976, 1978) 

surveyed randomly placed 3.25 by 0.1 mile transects 

in each of the 16 Animas and Playas Valley townships 

defined as their Hidalgo Project study area. They estimate 

systematic coverage of 4 percent of the study area, and 

they recorded, collected, and in some cases conducted 

limited excavations at over 100 sites. The records and 

materials are not currently available in any public repository; evaluation of survey results must rest on published 

literature. John Douglas (1987) conducted a survey 

of similar intensity on approximately 1,700 ha (4,200 

acres) or 1.7 percent of the San Bernardino Valley in 

southeastern Arizona.

There is a long history of poorly reported, small excavations by both archaeological professionals and amateurs 

in the Malpai Borderlands (for example, see Carey 1931; 

Mills and Mills 1971; Myers 1985; Osborne and Hayes 

1938). However, larger excavation programs, culminating 

in detailed reports, are far fewer in number. The work by 

A. V. Kidder and the Cosgroves (1949) at the Pendleton 

Ruin constitutes the most intensive excavation at a 

single site in the study area (table 3.1 and fig. 3.1). They 

considered the site to be an “outpost” of Casas Grandes 

at the start of work at Pendleton in 1933. The absence 

of a variety of Casas Grandes-style architectural traits 

(for example collared postholes, platform and scalloped 

hearths, keyhole doorways), high frequencies of local 

Cloverdale Corrugated utility wares, and relatively low 

amounts of Chihuahuan polychrome pottery suggested 

a “peripheral” development for which they adopted the 

term “Animas,” previously used by Gladwin (1933) and 

Sayles (1936). A focus on the relationship between the late 

Paul R. Fish

Suzanne K. Fish

Chapter 3.

Malpai Borderlands Prehistory
24 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006

prehistoric pueblos of the Malpai Borderlands and Casas 

Grandes has stimulated most subsequent excavations.

At least limited excavation has been conducted at six 

other late prehistoric sites in the study area (see table 3.1 

and fig. 3.1). E. B. McCluney (1965a) from the School of 

American Research excavated at the Clanton Draw and 

Box Canyon sites in the upper Animas drainage and exposed a portion of the Joyce Well site on Deer Creek in the 

Playas Valley (McCluney 2002: 16). Several excavations in 

the San Bernardino Valley have also been conducted at late 

prehistoric or Animas phase pueblos. Jack and Vera Mills 

(1971) excavated a large portion of the Slaughter Ranch 

pueblo, the largest site in the valley, but these remains have 

only been minimally reported. John Douglas (1990, 1996) 

and Richard Myers (1985) conducted excavations at the 

related Boss Ranch and San Bernardino sites as part of 

Cochise College field classes. Douglas’ work represents 

the only instance of excavations in the Borderlands study 

area using contemporary recovery techniques, such as 

systematic screening of fill and flotation.

One of the most comprehensive and well-documented 

investigations in the Borderland study area pertains to an 

unpublished reconnaissance survey of Animas phase sites 

by T. O’Laughlin, J. Ravesloot, and M. Foster (n.d.) of 

the Jornada Anthropological Research Association. This 

survey developed background information on 25 sites 

for a thematic nomination to the National Register of 

Historic Places (fig. 3.1). This nomination was prepared by 

Table 3.1. Summary of large site excavations in the Malpai Borderlands.

Site Location Estimated total rooms Number of rooms excavated

Pendleton Ruin Animas Valley 100 to 125a 93 excavated or outlinedb

Box Canyon Animas Valley 120 to175;a 350c 18 excavated, 39 outlinedc

Clanton Draw Animas Valley 20+ c 11 excavated

Joyce Well Playas Valley 50+;d

 150 to 250a 45 excavated

Slaughter Ranch San Bernardino 40+e 14 excavated f

Boss Ranch San Bernardino 20+g 11 excavatedh

a

 O’Laughlin and others n.d.; b Kidder and others 1949: 124; c McCluney 1965; dMcCluney n.d.; e

 Arizona State Museum site card; f Mills and Mills 1971; g John Douglas, personal communication; h

 Douglas 1996

Figure 3.1. Locations of sites in a thematic nomination to the National Register of Historic Places (Duran 1992).
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 25

Meliha S. Duran (1992) and is currently pending review. 

Development of the nomination led to proposals in the 

U.S. Senate by New Mexico Congressman Ralph Blending 

for a National Monument centering on the Animas sites. 

The interpretive theme for this Monument emphasized 

continuity with Casas Grandes and Mexican high cultures 

to the south (Schaafsma n.d.a). Support for a National 

Monument could not be generated among local ranchers 

and landowners, and the proposal lapsed. The plans for a 

major exhibit focusing on Malpai Borderlands study area 

sites with the theme “A Gateway to Mexico” (Schaafsma 

n.d.b) have been temporarily put on hold.

The presence of Casas Grandes, only 100 km (62 

miles) to the south, is probably the single most important 

factor influencing interpretation of Malpai Borderlands 

prehistory. Casas Grandes is without question the largest 

and most complex site in the Greater Southwest. This 

late prehistoric town had a population numbering several 

thousand and an impressive array of public architecture, 

including several ballcourts and 18 ceremonial mounds 

or platforms. The presence of similar polychrome ceramics and architectural styles in the Malpai Borderlands 

made early investigators look to Casas Grandes for their 

comparisons and expectations. Detailed and largescale 

excavations by Charles Di Peso (1974) at Casas Grandes 

during the 1960s reinforced this point of comparison. 

Extensive reconnaissance surveys south of the San Luis 

and Playas Valleys (Brand 1943; Sayles 1936) and the 

San Bernardino Valley (Braniff-C. 1992; Di Peso n.d.; 

Sauer and Brand 1930) demonstrated spatial continuity in 

ceramic and architectural styles. The level of information 

for the intervening area did not approach that available 

for the Borderlands and Casas Grandes for many years. 

Only recently have systematic survey efforts begun to 

provide measures of Casas Grandes influence at varying 

distances to the north from that site (Braniff-C. 1992; 

Whalen and Minnis 2001).

Culture History_____________________

Paleoindian Hunters (10,000 B.C. to 

7000 B.C.)

Widely distributed projectile points typical of both early 

and late portions of the Paleoindian period have been found 

on the surface as isolated artifacts within and immediately 

adjacent to the Borderlands study area (Di Peso 1965; 

Huckell 1971; Myers 1967, 1976). James Fitting and T. 

Price (1968) report a late Paleoindian surface assemblage 

consisting of points, unifacial tools, and debitage from 

a terrace above Cloverdale Creek in the Animas Valley. 

A high frequency of debitage in this assemblage suggests workshop activities (Fitting and Price 1968: 7–8). 

Figure 3.2 combines site location information for the 

Paleoindian and Archaic periods.

Figure 3.2. Distribution of Paleoindian and Archaic sites based on site file information.
26 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006

Although only surface artifacts have been discovered to 

date, the Borderlands study area may offer opportunities 

to examine the human role in Pleistocene extinctions of 

an array of small and large mammals. U-Bar Cave in the 

Hachita Mountains has produced deposits of mid-to-late 

Wisconson age (30,000 to 15,000 B.P.) with extensive 

fossil mammal, bird, and reptile assemblages (Harris 1985, 

1987). Near the western edge of the study area, buried late 

Pleistocene/early Holocene deposits occur in Whitewater 

Draw (Waters 1986: 41), and these stratigraphic units 

have also yielded a variety of extinct large mammals 

(Antevs 1983; Haury 1960; Sayles and Antevs 1941). 

Significantly, the study area is near the classic Clovis kill 

and butchering sites of Lehner, Murray Springs, Escapule, 

and Naco (Haury 1953; Haury and others 1959; Haynes 

and Hemmings 1968; Huckell 1982).

Archaic Foragers (7000 B.C. to 1500 B.C.)

There is limited evidence for Early and Middle Archaic 

utilization of the study area. The two largest systematic 

surveys (De Atley 1980; Douglas 1987, 1990) record 

numerous lithic artifact scatters but none that could be 

unequivocally dated to the Archaic with diagnostic artifacts. Stephen Lekson (1992a: 64) suggests that casual 

collection of surface artifacts may produce a distorted 

impression of the intensity of Archaic occupation, using 

an example from Findlow and De Atley’s survey (1976, 

1978) in the vicinity of Playas Lake. They located 25 

extensive scatters of flaked stone and fire‐cracked rock on 

old beach lines and concluded, in the absence of stylistically diagnostic artifacts, that these were the remains of 

resource exploitation by ceramic period peoples (Findlow, 

personal communication in Lekson 1992a: 64). Lekson 

notes that the well-documented collection of hundreds 

of Middle and Late Archaic projectile points by Donald 

Formby (1986) from Playas Lake beaches suggests intensive earlier use, and that previous collecting may be 

in large part responsible for the failure to recover these 

diagnostic artifacts during survey. On the other hand, the 

authors observed large numbers of stylistically Archaic 

projectile points in well-documented collections recently 

made by Jeff Shauger while mapping fencelines and other 

modern features on the Gray Ranch in the Animas and 

Playas Valleys. These fencelines crosscut many of the 

Findlow and De Atley transects; the fact that Shauger 

could find points suggests that the intensity of previous 

investigations rather than depletion by collectors limited 

the recovery of Archaic diagnostics.

Another biasing factor for Archaic representation in 

survey results may be the burial of relevant deposits. 

Buried Archaic sites have been recorded in the San 

Bernardino Valley (for example see Neily and Beckwith 

1985), and E. B. Sayles (n.d.) reports Archaic remains 

1 m (3.3 ft) or more below the surface of former Lake 

San Luis beachlines. Studies of such buried contexts 

in Whitewater Draw (Sayles 1983; Sayles and Antevs 

1941), adjacent to the western edge of the study area, 

have allowed definition of the Cochise Archaic sequence 

for southern Arizona and New Mexico. More recently, 

investigations here have produced numerous radiocarbon 

dates and geological assessments of environmental change 

(Waters 1986).

Preceramic Farmers (1500 B.C. to A.D. 200)

Late Archaic settlements with numerous houses, large 

bell-shaped storage pits, burials, formal groundstone, 

high ubiquity of maize in flotation and pollen samples, 

and instances of well-developed middens are now well 

documented in the Santa Cruz and San Pedro Valleys 

of southern Arizona (S. Fish and others 1990, 1992; B. 

Huckell 1990, 1996; Mabry 1994, 1996). Probable Late 

Archaic houses have been reported to the north of the 

study area along the upper Gila River and in the Sulphur 

Springs Valley (Fitting 1972b; Minnis 1980; Sayles 1945, 

1983) and to the east along the Rio Grande (Honea 1965; 

Lekson 1992a: 62–64; O’Laughlin 1980). Charred corn 

of Archaic age has been dated immediately to the east of 

the study area in Dona Ana County, New Mexico (Upham 

and others 1987).

Projectile points (Lambert and Ambler 1961: 33, fig. 

19) and perishable remains such as atlatls and certain types 

of sandals (Lambert and Ambler 1961: 84–85) suggest 

stylistically Late Archaic occupations at U-Bar Cave in 

the Hachita Mountains. However, these artifacts cannot 

be clearly associated with the copious amounts of corn 

and other domesticates recovered at this site. Frequent 

San Pedro, Cienega, and Cortaro projectile point forms in 

the Jeff Shauger collections from the Gray Ranch indicate 

widespread Borderland occupations contemporary with 

those in the San Pedro and Santa Cruz Valleys. Owen 

Davis (2001: 408) identified corn pollen in an Animas 

Creek cienega near the Gray Ranch headquarters. It is 

associated with a radiocarbon date of approximately 3400 

B.P. Davis’ analyses of cores from other cienega deposits 

immediately adjacent to the study area have also yielded 

corn pollen in the 2000 to 3500 B.P. range.

Late Archaic settlement locations may be buried in 

alluvium along primary and secondary drainages and 

on alluvial fans as is frequently the case in the Santa 

Cruz and San Pedro Valleys (S. Fish and others 1992; B. 

Huckell 1996). A second possibility is that at least some 

hill and mountain occupations in northwestern Chihuahua, 
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 27

southwestern New Mexico, and southeastern Arizona 

date to preceramic times (Hard and Roney 1999; Roney 

and Hard 2004). These villages share most of the characteristics of the later cerros de trincheras village sites of 

southern Arizona and northern Sonora in having dry-laid 

masonry terraces and other features constructed on dark 

volcanic hillsides (Downum and others 1994). Several of 

these sites near Janos, Chihuahua, mapped in detail (Roney 

and Hard 2004), have dark midden deposits that contain 

diverse flaked and groundstone assemblages and suggest 

residential refuse. The associated artifacts are stylistically 

Late Archaic. Construction and hillside modification at 

some of these sites is massive. For example, at Cerro 

Juanaqueña, Hard and Roney (1998; Hard and others 

1999) calculate that the summit and hillside have been 

transformed by 8 km (5 miles) of terrace wall and that all 

rock has been removed from over 10 ha (25 acres) of the 

hill summit. A terraced hillside without ceramics has been 

reported in the upper reaches of Deer Creek in the Playas 

Valley (Cosgrove and Cosgrove n.d.; Kidder and others 

1949: 149; Osborne and Hayes 1938: 22), and such sites 

are believed to be present in the San Bernardino Valley 

(John Douglas, personal communication). The authors 

observed basin metates, many one-handed manos, and a 

stylistically Late Archaic projectile point during a visit at 

the Deer Creek terraced hillside or fortified site.

Pithouse Hamlets (A.D. 200 to A.D. 1000)

Survey records reveal only a few habitation sites in 

the Borderlands study area that can be assigned to this 

ceramic interval with any certainty (fig. 3.3). Findlow and 

De Atley (1978; De Atley 1980; De Atley and Findlow 

1982) recorded eight “early” San Luis phase sites in 

their Hidalgo Project investigations in the Animas and 

Playas Valleys. Systematic survey has revealed several 

additional sites of this period in the San Bernardino Valley 

(Douglas 1990; Neily and Beckwith 1985). Although 

brownware sherds are ubiquitous, occasional occurrences 

of Mogollon Red-on-brown, Three Circle Red-on-white, 

and Mimbres Boldface Black-on-white ceramics demonstrate later pithouse period use of the study area as well. 

Excavations (Minnis and Wormser 1984; Sayles 1945) in 

adjacent desert areas suggest that many of the numerous 

brownware sherd and lithic scatters recorded in the study 

area may similarly reflect habitation remains; a relatively 

complete sequence of occupation may be present as in 

the adjacent Sulphur Springs Valley (Sayles 1945, 1983) 

and nearby San Simon Valley (Gilman 1997).

In mountainous zones to the north, early pithouse 

villages are frequently found on high, steep-sided mesas 

and occasionally have dry-laid masonry walls (Lekson 

1992a: 13), raising the possibility of continuity with 

Figure 3.3. Distribution of Early Ceramic (Pithouse Hamlet) sites based on site file information.
28 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006

previous Late Archaic hillside sites (Hard and Roney 

1998). Some scholars have inferred defense as a primary 

location consideration (LeBlanc 1980a), but Lekson 

(1992a: 13) points out that distance and difficulty of 

access to water limit the power of this explanation. 

To Lekson (1992a,b), Cable and Doyel (1987), and 

a variety of other Southwestern archaeologists, there 

appears to be synchroneity in changing village layout 

over time in the southern deserts from the Rio Grande 

to the Phoenix Basin during the pithouse period. The 

earliest pithouse settlements are invariably small with 

an average of seven structures (Lekson 1992a: 13). 

Sites such as Cave Creek and San Simon villages 

just north of the study area had an estimated 20 to 

30 people (Cable and Doyel 1987: 61). By A.D. 500, 

larger villages with one or two large communal, “great 

kiva-like” structures were built in many parts of the 

region (Anyon and LeBlanc 1980; Cable and Doyel 

1987, Di Peso 1956, 1958, 1974). A few of the latest 

pithouse sites in east-central New Mexico are large; 

for example, the late pithouse component at Galaz site 

has approximately 100 pithouses (Anyon and LeBlanc 

1984: 94), and there are perhaps 200 at Lee Village 

(Lekson 1992a: 14).

Shifting seasonal occupation has been the dominant 

model used to interpret pithouse period settlement patterns in the southern deserts. On the basis of ethnographic 

analogy, Patricia Gilman (1987, 1997) has argued that 

pithouse architecture is most frequently associated with 

seasonal mobility and movement of residence during 

the year. Applying these precepts to San Simon settlement data northwest of the Malpai Borderlands, Gilman 

(1987: 207) infers that villages were occupied during the 

winter, near agricultural fields and stores. Sherd and lithic 

scatters are the remains of summer and spring foraging 

activities. So few sites have been assigned to the early 

ceramic period in the Malpai Borderlands study area 

that no clear picture of settlement pattern emerges (fig 

3.3). Study area reconnaissance and site visits during 

investigations for this study suggest that early ceramic 

remains are dramatically underrepresented in current 

archival information and that systematic searches of site 

surfaces would yield diagnostics indicating many more 

components of this period.

Mimbres Horizon Villages (A.D. 1000 to 

A.D. 1200)

The widely distributed complex of Mimbres style 

ceramics, architecture, and settlement organization 

extends far beyond the Mimbres Valley of southwestern 

New Mexico—east to the Rio Grande (Lekson 1989a; 

M. Nelson 1993), north to the San Franciso Mountains 

(Lekson 1992a,b), south to the Janos area of Chihuahua 

(Brand 1943; Carey 1931), and west to the San Bernardino 

and Gila Valleys of southeastern Arizona (Douglas 1990; 

Sauer and Brand 1930). This phenomenon is sometimes 

conceptualized as an interaction sphere or regional system 

resembling that of the pre‐Classic Hohokam (Lekson 

1993, 1992a,b; Upham 1992; Wilcox 1991). The transition 

from pithouse to pueblo architecture and the florescence 

of the Classic Mimbres Black-on-white pottery mark this 

period. Although none have been excavated, sites of this 

period in the study area appear to contain both pithouse 

and pueblo architecture and may yield low frequencies 

of Mimbres Black-on-white pottery.

Mimbres pueblos in the homeland of this horizon are 

occasionally large, with a few exceeding 300 rooms. In 

the Malpai Borderlands, the Maddox Ruin in the Animas 

Valley may be such a site. Locational continuity with 

major pithouse period villages is frequent in the Mimbres 

Valley. Although great kivas may have been present at a 

few large Mimbres pueblos and at dispersed communities of small sites (Anyon and LeBlanc 1980; Lekson 

1989b), open plaza areas replaced kivas as communal 

features at most settlements. A majority of large settlements and settlement clusters in the Mimbres Valley and 

some other locales in New Mexico appear dependent on 

irrigation strategies for agriculture (Creel and Adams 

1986; Herrington 1979, 1982; Lekson 1992a: 16). A close 

correlation exists between the total number of Mimbres 

rooms and amount of irrigable bottomland in valleys 

(Lekson 1986).

Variable estimates of terminal population for the 

Mimbres Valley range from 1,500 to about 5,000 (Blake 

and others 1986; Minnis 1984, 1985; Nelson and others 

1994), and there is a consensus that regional population 

for the larger extent of Mimbres style probably does 

not exceed 10,000 or 20,000 (Lekson 1992a: 18). Small 

populations spread over large distances are consistent 

with the perception of an “essentially egalitarian people. 

. .with the emergence of an incipient elite” at some 

locations (LeBlanc 1983: 148). Between A.D. 1180 and 

1200, a rapid demographic and social collapse of the 

Mimbres heartland was followed by a hiatus and then 

reoccupation by later and culturally distinct peoples. This 

progression is considered a landmark event of regional 

prehistory (LeBlanc 1989). A climatic downturn, the 

attraction or competition occasioned by the florescence 

of Casas Grandes, and marauding Apaches (LeBlanc 

1989) have all been considered as causal agents. Recent 

investigators have suggested that changes at the end of 
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 29

the Mimbres horizon may not have been so dramatic 

as previously portrayed, and that the transition may 

have extended over a considerable period (Creel 1997; 

Lekson 1992a). Instead, it may be useful to view the 

Mimbres “collapse” as part of a broader reorganization 

of population and society that occurred at about this 

time across the southern deserts and throughout the 

Southwest (Cordell and Gumerman 1989; P. Fish and 

Fish 1994).

Pueblos with Mimbres ceramic types exceeding 100 

rooms are known along Animas Creek in the Borderlands, 

and smaller pueblos and pithouse settlements are scattered 

throughout the bootheel of southwestern New Mexico 

(Lekson 1992a: 16). John Douglas (1990: 174) considers 

pithouse architecture as the dominant form throughout 

the period in southeastern Arizona. No excavated architectural plans or materials are available within the 

study area. Although site densities certainly never approached those of the Mimbres Valley, available survey 

data suggest that the Animas Valley, and probably the 

San Bernardino Valley as well, had significant Mimbres 

period populations.

Figure 3.4 depicts the settlement pattern of the 

Mimbres Horizon as revealed in site file information. 

With the exception of a habitation locale at the edge of 

the large playa in Playas Valley, sites classified as having 

residential characteristics are near relatively permanent 

water sources on major mountain drainages as they 

emerge onto basin bajadas or at the edges of cienegas. 

Diagnostic painted pottery in assemblages dating prior 

to A.D. 1200 is relatively rare in the Borderlands and 

undoubtedly contributes to an underestimation of the 

frequency of these components, as does the infrequency 

of readily visible puebloan architecture at this time.

Late Prehistoric Pueblos (A.D. 1200 to 

1400/1450)

The adobe pueblos of southwestern New Mexico 

and southeastern Arizona that recall Chihuahuan 

styles have attracted sporadic archaeological attention 

since the 1920s (Brand 1943; Gladwin and Gladwin 

1934; Kidder and others 1949; Sauer and Brand 1930; 

Sayles 1936). This stylistic complex has been termed 

the Animas phase in the archaeological literature. It is 

characterized by large, puddled adobe pueblos, roomblocks built around plazas, an absence of kivas, the 

sporadically recorded occurrence of Casas Grandes style 

ballcourts, and a high proportion of Ramos Polychrome 

and other Chihuahuan ceramics. Interpretation of these 

manifestations is almost always in terms of interaction 

with the regionally preeminent site of Casas Grandes, 

although the nature and strength of such relationships 

have been hotly debated.

Figure 3.4. Distribution of Mimbres horizon sites based on site file information.
30 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006

The Database

Boundaries for the Malpai Borderlands study area 

almost precisely correspond to the northern distribution of 

ceramic assemblages with high proportions of Chihuahuan 

polychromes and sites assigned to a Chihuahuan tradition (Sauer and Brand 1930). Locations of the largest 

pueblos (100 or more rooms) are well known in regional 

archaeological reconnaissances (Brand 1943; De Atley 

1980; Kidder and others 1949; Sayles 1936). Sample 

survey in the bootheel region of New Mexico has suggested to Suzanne De Atley (1980: 30) a hierarchical 

settlement pattern with large central sites (100 to 500 

rooms) separated by distances of approximately 15 km 

(9 miles). On the other hand, John Douglas (1995) infers 

largely autonomous villages from settlement distributions 

in the western part of the study area. Detailed maps and 

descriptions for 30 sites were prepared in conjunction with 

a thematic nomination of Animas sites to the National 

Register of Historic Places (Duran 1992).

Figure 3.5 shows the locations of late prehistoric sites 

recorded in the study area. Although the largest sites are 

well known, systematic survey data are limited. Regional 

surveys in the bootheel segment of New Mexico and in 

the San Bernardino Valley of Arizona are environmentally 

stratified samples at 2-percent levels. Nothing comparable 

to full-coverage data exists for any significant subsection 

of the Borderlands study area; consequently, relationships 

between large pueblos and the smaller units of settlement 

pattern are unknown. Without sufficient settlement pattern data on a regional scale, inferences about village 

autonomy (Douglas 1995), settlement hierarchy (De Atley 

1980), multisite communities (P. Fish and Fish 1994), 

and interaction between territorial units are somewhat 

speculative.

Chronology

Chronology is key in interpreting late prehistoric 

developments in the Malpai Borderlands study area. 

Table 3.2 compares current regional chronologies for 

southwestern New Mexico, southeastern Arizona, and 

northern Chihuahua. On the basis of ceramic cross-dating, most archaeologists working in southwestern New 

Mexico and southeastern Arizona placed the large, late 

pueblos in the range of A.D.1250 to 1450 (Brand 1935; 

Kidder and others 1949; McCluney 1965a, 2002: 39). 

In fact, the constellation of decorated ceramic types 

occurring at these sites (St. Johns Polychrome, Gila 

Polychrome, Tonto Polychrome, Pinedale Polychrome, 

El Paso Polychrome, Chupadero Black-on-white, and an 

assortment of Chihuahuan types) has come to be regarded 

as the hallmark of 14th and 15th century occupations in 

the southern Southwest (Doyel 1976; Thompson n.d.; 

Figure 3.5. Distribution of Animas phase (late prehistoric) sites based on site file information.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 31 Table 3.2.Comparison of relevant chronological sequences for the Malpai Borderlands study area. A.D. 1500 - 1400 - 1300 - 1200 - 1100 - 1000 - 900 - 800 - 700 - 600 - 500 - 400 - 300 - 200 - 100 - A.D. 1 - Phase sequence southwest New Mexico Period sequence southwest New Mexicoa Revised Casas Grandes phase sequenceb Revised Casas Grandes period sequenceb Phase sequence Malpai Borderlandsc Ceramic period sequence used in this overview a Nelson and Anyon 1996; Stuart and Gauthier 1981. b Dean and Ravesloot 1993. c De Atley 1980. Cliff (Salado) Black Mountain (Animas) Classic Mimbres Three Circle San Francisco Georgetown Cumbre Late Archaic Late P Late Archaic ueblo Early Pueblo Late Pithouse Early Pithouse Diablo Paquime Buena Fe Perros Bravos Medio Viejo Salado Animas San Luis ?????? Late Prehistoric Pueblos Mimbres Villages Pithouse Hamlets Preceramic Farmers
32 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006

Wilcox and Shenk 1977: 64–68). This same ceramic 

assemblage also characterizes the major construction 

episodes at Casas Grandes and provided the basis for 

a 14th century dating assignment in most early regional 

syntheses (Carey 1931; Gladwin 1957; Kidder 1924; 

Sauer and Brand 1930; Sayles 1936).

With Di Peso’s (1974) large-scale excavations at Casas 

Grandes in the 1960s, general consensus on regional 

chronology was shaken. Tree-ring dates appeared to 

place major construction at the site to an interval between 

A.D. 1060 and 1340. Therefore, Di Peso’s interpretations 

emphasized comparison with cultural developments at 

the same time in the Mimbres and Chaco regions to 

the north. This radical transformation of Southwestern 

culture history was met by a combination of skepticism, 

criticism, and adjustments to local sequences to better fit 

this new framework (Braniff-C. 1986; LeBlanc 1980b, 

1986; Lekson 1984; Ravesloot 1979; Wilcox 1986). For 

example, Stephen LeBlanc (1980a, 1986) developed a 

model for the Mimbres Valley in which there was collapse 

and abandonment at about A.D. 1100, an occupational hiatus, and reoccupation by participants in the Casas Grandes 

interaction sphere, which he dated between A.D. 1200 

and 1300. Recent reevaluation of the tree-ring evidence 

for Casas Grandes clearly demonstrates that the major 

occupation at this pivotal site occurred between A.D. 1300 

and 1500 (Dean and Ravesloot 1993: 96–97).

Further complicating regional chronology, Di Peso 

(1974: 46) accepted and reported three radiocarbon dates 

suggesting a 16th century occupation at Joyce Well (table 

3.3). He interpreted these dates as evidence that scattered 

Tardio period populations from Casas Grandes occupied 

the bootheel section of New Mexico and nearby areas 

after the collapse of that site. Both De Atley (1980) and 

Carpenter (1992) point out that these dates were all derived 

from carbonized corn and never corrected for differential 

absorption of 13C and 14C fractions. If an estimated average correction of 200 years were made, all three samples 

would date to the latter half of the 1300s.

Table 3.3 presents chronological data from excavated 

sites with radiocarbon and tree-ring dates in and immediately adjacent to the Malpai Borderlands study area. 

Obsidian hydration dates from two analyses (De Atley 

1980: 77–80; Stevenson and others 1989) tend to broadly 

conform to associated radiocarbon dates and estimates 

from ceramic assemblages. Table 3.3 underscores the 

limited number of absolute dates from the study area 

and vicinity. Problems resulting from poorly understood 

proveniences and lack of current correction factors for 

radiocarbon dating further complicate the chronological picture. Available dates from nearly all large sites 

Table 3.3. Absolute dates for sites in and immediately adjacent to the Malpai Borderlands.

Site Ceramic cross-dating Radiocarbon Tree ring Archaeomagnetic

Clanton Draw 1350–1375a

Box Canyon 1350–1380aJoyce Well 1250–1400b 1620 ± 110; 1590 ± 100; 1565 ± 110i 1249p–1308vvi late 1300skPendleton 1300–1375cCulberson 1200–1450d 1360 ± 60h 1183–1282vv; 1185–1284vviBoss Ranch 1150–1450e 1400 ± 80; 1430 ± 50eKuykendall 1300–1450f 1385 ± 23; 1375 ± 18jSlaughter Ranch 1300–1500fOjo de Agua 1250–1450g 1580 ± 180; 1522 ± 41; 1420 ± 70; 1666 ± 40gDouble Adobe Cave ? 545 ± 90hMaddox Ruin 1000–1400d 1230 ± 60hHildalgo Survey 1 ? 1420 ± 60; 1060 ± 60; 1200 ± 60hHildalgo Survey 65 ? 1185 ± 60hHildalgo Survey 15 ? 1060 ± 60; 875 ± 60hReferences: aMcCluney 1965; bMcCluney n.d.; cKidder and others 1949; dO’Laughlin et al. n.d.; eDouglas 1996.; fEstimate by P. Fish; gBraniff 1992: 547; hDe Atley 1980: 69; iDi 

Peso 1974: 46; jMills and Mills 1969a; kCurtis Schaafsma, personal communication.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 33

generally parallel ceramic estimates and postdate A.D. 

1200. The late dates from Ojo de Agua are particularly 

intriguing as they are in clear association with ceramic assemblages (the range of polychrome types and Cloverdale 

Corrugated utility ceramics) and architecture that characterize late prehistoric (Animas phase) occupations in 

the Borderlands.

Geographic Variability

The presence of two stylistically discrete late prehistoric occupations in the Malpai Borderlands study area has 

been long distinguished on the basis of distinct plainware 

utility types (Brand 1943; Sauer and Brand 1930). One 

subdivision is in the Animas and San Bernardino Valleys 

and corresponds to utility ceramic assemblages dominated 

by Cloverdale Corrugated; the other is located in the Playas 

Valley where utility ceramics are principally Playas Red. 

Differences in frequencies of Chihuahuan and Salado 

polychrome types (Nelson and Anyon 1996: 284) also 

figure in this distinction; Salado polychromes are more 

common with Cloverdale Corrugated and Chihuahuan 

polychromes are more frequent with Playas Red.

Architectural tendencies crosscut these ceramic 

spheres. Compounds and cimientos-type wall footings 

(cobble or slab alignments without discernible melted 

adobe) are more frequent in the west, particularly in the 

San Bernardino Valley with Cloverdale Corrugated. At 

the largest sites such as Kuykendall (Mills and Mills 

1969a,b), a short distance northwest of the study area, 

and Ojo de Agua (Braniff-C. 1992), spatially separate 

compounds are formed by a single row of rooms on all 

four sides of an open interior. At Ojo de Agua and other 

Sonoran sites recorded by Di Peso (n.d.), large open 

areas among the compounds may represent a central 

plaza (fig. 3.6). Contiguous roomblocks and plaza arrangements that have been designated as “puebloan” 

are recorded in the Animas and Playas Valleys (fig. 3.7). 

Massive, coursed adobe construction of the roomblocks, 

resulting in architectural remains of mounded adobe, is 

more commonplace in the Playas Valley. Smaller sites in 

the San Bernardino, Animas, and Playas Valleys exhibit 

great variability and range from isolated structures or 

field houses, to sets of contiguous rooms, to compounds 

with a few rooms dispersed in the courtyard or attached 

to the outer wall.

Geographic and stylistic contrasts have been noted 

between spatially discrete compounds and roomblocks 

of contiguous units (Brand 1943: 117; Douglas 1995: 

243–244). The designation of “puebloan” for the roomblock layouts is suggestive of underlying cultural and 

organizational differences as well. However, roomblock 

sites are more “puebloan” than compound sites only in 

the sense of larger masses of contiguous rooms; neither 

of the architectural types exhibits northern elements 

such as kivas.

Questions among sites with compound and roomblock 

arrangements concerning organizational carryovers or 

similarities also can be raised, if not resolved, by our 

current understanding of site layouts. Di Peso’s sketch of 

Ojo de Agua compounds (fig. 3.6) shows eight units, each 

outlined by a single row of rooms. If those compounds 

were conjoined along their outer edges, they would form 

a series of plaza and roomblock arrangements, with a 

row of two (or sometimes more) back-to-back rooms 

between adjacent plazas (fig. 3.7). Such a structure 

generally parallels the layout of the Joyce Well site 

Figure 3.6. Selected site 

plans with compound architecture.
34 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006

(fig. 3.8), which has five identified plazas and several 

more probable ones. The open areas in the center of Ojo 

de Agua compounds could conceivably correspond to 

the large plaza at Joyce Well. Pendleton and Box Canyon 

could be smaller multiples of similar arrangements (fig. 

3.8). Precise comparison is not possible with sketch maps 

of most large sites, but the dimensions of plaza units at 

the three sites in fig. 3.7 appear similar to dimensions 

of Sonoran compounds provided by Di Peso (fig. 3.6). 

Thus, sites with separate compounds and sites with 

roomblocks and plazas may share aspects of demographic 

and organizational structure.

Architectural and ceramic styles of the late prehistoric 

Malpai Borderlands are more closely allied to expressions 

to the south than to the north. Sites with high frequencies of Cloverdale Corrugated extend to the south in 

the northern portion of the Carretas Basin and along the 

southward flowing streams immediately across the border 

from the San Bernardino Valley in Sonora. Whereas 

many of the larger sites in the Carretas Basin have even 

more massive, coursed adobe walls than in the study 

area, Ojo de Agua and other large Sonoran sites west of 

the Carretas Basin consist of compound and cimientosstyle architecture. Brand (1933) and Sayles (n.d., 1936) 

record many mounded Chihuahuan sites with evidence 

for massive, coursed adobe south of their Borderlands 

counterparts at Joyce Well and the Culberson Ruin in 

the Playas Valley.

Subsistence

Qualitative evidence indicates that late prehistoric 

inhabitants of the study area had strong agricultural 

orientations. Ratios of formal groundstone grinding 

implements to sherds appear well within the range of 

excavated assemblages from Hohokam and Salado 

contexts to the north and west (table 3.4). In fact, high 

frequencies of well-worn grinding implements have 

often been used by study area researchers to characterize 

Animas phase remains (Brand 1943: 119–122; Kidder 

and others 1949: 142).

Three kinds of botanical samples supply information 

pertaining to Malpai Borderlands subsistence. Excavations 

in dry deposits in Pinnacle Cave, Buffalo Cave, and U-Bar 

Cave in the Alamo Hueco Mountains on the eastern edge 

Figure 3.7. Selected site plans with roomblock architecture.

Figure 3.8. Comparison of residential units in idealized compound and roomblock architecture.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 35

of the study area furnished an array of well-preserved 

perishable artifacts and large quantities of cultivated and 

noncultivated plant foods (Lambert and Ambler 1961). 

Excavations at Pendleton Ruin, Box Canyon, Clanton 

Draw, and Joyce Well produced records of plant materials, 

although systematic recovery techniques such as screening and flotation were not employed. Hugh Cutler (1961; 

Cutler and Cutler 2002: table 3.1; Cutler and Eickmeier 

1965; York 1961) provides quantified lists of plant 

remains for the caves, Box Canyon, Clanton Draw, and 

Joyce Well, but only impressions are offered by Kidder 

and others (1949) for the Pendleton Ruin. Data based on 

standard screening of all deposits and flotation analyses 

are available only for the Boss Ranch site (Adams n.d; 

Douglas 1996).

Charred corn remains are consistently described as 

abundant at excavated sites in the study area (Kidder 

and others 1949: 142; McCluney 1965a: 21, 36; 2002: 

45–46). At Joyce Well, corn was present in many rooms 

and described as stacked like cordwood in several rooms 

(Cutler and Cutler 2002: table 3.1). Out of 25 flotation 

samples, 23 (92 percent) contained corn at the Boss 

Ranch site (Adams n.d.; Douglas 1996)—a high rate 

of recovery when compared with analyses for other 

prehistoric Southwestern farmers. Four varieties of corn 

that Cutler classified as Pueblo, Onaveno, Pima-Papago, 

and Reventado/Chapalote were usually present in assemblages at the dry caves, Box Canyon, Clanton Draw, 

and Joyce Well.

Other identifications of cultivated crops include numerous instances of cotton, several varieties of beans, 

cucurbits, and bottle gourd (Adams n.d.; Cutler and 

Eickmeier 1965; Kidder and others 1949; Lambert and 

Ambler 1961). The frequency of cotton in excavated 

samples is of note, particularly as no systematic methods 

such as flotation or even screening were attempted at most 

sites. Cotton is reported from the Alamo Hueco Caves 

(Lambert and Ambler 1961), Boss Ranch (Adams n.d.), 

and Joyce Well (Cutler and Cutler 2002: 100).

Tabular knives, usually associated with the harvest and 

processing of agave, are conspicuous components of lithic 

artifact assemblages, and large roasting pits are frequently 

found in both residential sites and as isolated features. 

Amerind Foundation site file information indicates that 

large ovens may be formal elements of plaza arrangements surrounded by compounds in the San Bernardino 

Valley and in the valleys of northeasternmost Sonora. 

Although this archaeological evidence suggests that 

agave or perhaps yucca or sotol were important sources 

of food and fiber, no direct evidence currently supports 

cultivation of agave as now recognized in the Hohokam 

region (see Fish and others 1985).

The record of wild plants from excavated study 

area sites, including dry caves, is modest compared to 

cultivated resources. Potential food resources include 

grass, yucca, sotol, mesquite legumes, acorns, walnuts, 

dock, and prickly pear, but ubiquity of each is often 

limited to a single instance and is always much lower 

than corn. Likewise, animal bones are not particularly 

common in excavated contexts. Kidder and others (1949: 

142) specifically comment on their rarity at the Pendleton 

Ruin. With systematic recovery through screening and 

flotation at Boss Ranch, only 178 faunal specimens could 

be classified into the broad categories of canine (coyote 

and dog), artiodactyl (deer and antelope), or lagomorph 

(cottontail and jackrabbit). This assemblage was dominated by lagomorphs. Aside from the addition of a few 

small mammals (fox, rocksquirrel, skunk, bobcat, wood 

Table 3.4. Comparison of groundstone frequencies among sites in the Northwest Periphery, Hohokam, and Salado Regions.

No. of manos Groundstone

Site or site group Location No. of sherds and metates ratioa Reference

Pendleton Cloverdale Creek 2,765 261 9.45 Kidder and others 1949

Joyce Well Deer Creek 9,985 78 .78 McCluney n.d.

Box Canyon Animas Valleu 1,017 17 1.67 McCluney 1965

Clanton Draw Animas Valley 1,167 14 1.19 McCluney 1965

Boss Ranch San Bernardino Valley 28,959 42 .15 Douglas 1985

Los Morteros Tucson Basin 39,002 258 .66 Wallace 1995

La Lomita Phoenix Basin 9,943 66 .66 Mitchell 1990

U:9:95 (ASM) Phoenix Basin 5,216 33 .63 Doyel and others 1995

U:9:97 (ASM) Phoenix Basin 907 23 2.54 Doyel and others 1995

Livingston Site Group Tonto Basin 75,628 331 .31 Jacobs 1995

Roosevelt Community 

Development Sites Tonto Basin 90,316 192 .21 Elson and others 1995

a

The groundstone ratio is calculated by dividing number of manos and metates by total number of sherds and multiplying times 100.
36 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006

rat) and unidentified birds, a composite faunal assemblage 

from all reported late prehistoric sites is almost identical 

to that of Boss Ranch (Douglas 1996: 192–193).

Little direct information exists on agricultural technology and field locations. Location near surface flows and 

alluvial fans suggests an emphasis on small-scale irrigation and floodwater strategies. In a catchment analysis for 

residential sites, Frank Findlow (1979) suggests that there 

is a primary emphasis on first- and second-order streams 

permitting ditch irrigation and a secondary emphasis on 

alluvial fans. On the basis of farming observed in Mexico, 

Sauer and Brand (Brand 1933, 1943: 117–122; Sauer and 

Brand 1930: 426, 443–444) during early reconnaissance 

surveys in the region, drew similar conclusions about 

the importance of irrigation. By comparing catchments 

around these sites and randomly placed plots on Landsat 

photographs of the study area, Findlow and Confeld 

(1980) identified distinctions in soil composition at 

stream margins that they suggested could be associated 

with past farming activity. Supporting this interpretation, 

Allen Dart (1986) identified actual changes in waterlaid 

soil types, as classified by the Soil Conservation Service, 

along the paths of former Hohokam irrigation canals in 

the Phoenix Basin.

Stone features associated with prehistoric agriculture 

are not well documented in the study area. Without 

locations or descriptions, Brand (1943: 117) mentioned 

considerable use of stone for terracing in the San 

Bernardino Valley and along the Rio Bavispe, but noted 

its absence in the Animas drainage. In a large-scale map 

of Casas Grandes settlement pattern, Di Peso (1974: vol. 

4, map insert) indicated several instances of extensive 

checkdam systems in the Playas Valley. The few instances 

in site files of features that might be agricultural usually 

consist of only one or two alignments.

Issues in Demography and Settlement

Comparative Population—Estimates by Findlow 

and De Atley (1976) and by Lekson (1992a) suggest that 

Borderlands population was relatively low in number 

and density. Findlow and De Atley proposed population 

of approximately 1,300 persons with a density of 0.96 

individuals per square mile. Using Longacre’s (1975) 

formula, Lekson (1992a: 113) projected back from 

this estimate to derive a figure of approximately 640 

contemporary rooms within the study area outlined by 

Findlow and De Atley in their Hidalgo Project. Possibly 

a few hundred additional occupants could be added from 

southeastern Arizona portions of the Malpai Borderlands 

not included in the Hidalgo Project design. Brand (1943; 

Sauer and Brand 1930) believed that population sizes 

and densities were significantly greater among related 

peoples near Janos and in the Carretas Basin, the Bavispe 

drainage, and portions of the San Bernardino Valley to 

the south.

To put modest Borderlands population into perspective, contrasts can be made with more densely settled 

populations in surrounding areas. For example, residents 

of Casas Grandes alone have been estimated in a range 

between 2,500 and 5,000 (Di Peso 1974; Lekson n.d.); 

unfortunately there is no sound basis at present for 

estimating outlying population in any area approximating the size of the Borderlands. A rough comparison 

of magnitude vis-à-vis Hohokam large-scale irrigators 

along the Gila River also is revealing (table 3.5). An 

average population of 2,300 has been calculated for a 

single community, consisting of one mound center and 

its outlying settlements. Six such communities share an 

extensive canal network on the Gila River, for a possible 

total of 13,800 people in an area a fraction of the size of 

the Borderlands.

Short-Term Sedentism—Restricted refuse, limited 

architectural remodeling and superpositioning of features, and low numbers of burials at late prehistoric sites 

in the study area and in adjacent regional sectors have 

led researchers to believe occupation spans were short 

(Carmichael 1990; Douglas 1990; Kidder and others 1949: 

146; Nelson and LeBlanc 1986; Upham 1992). Nelson 

and Le Blanc (1986) coined the descriptor “short term 

sedentism” to describe agriculturally committed and aggregated populations that occupy sedentary communities 

in sequential locations. More recently, Nelson and Anyon 

(1996) presented a model of “fallow” valleys in which 

sedentary populations shift from valley to valley to allow 

regeneration of critical resources. They posit a sequence 

of shifts in sedentary villages from the Mimbres Valley 

south to the Animas and Playas Valleys and then north 

to the Cliff and Mule Creek regions.

Depletion of faunal (Douglas 1996; Nelson and 

LeBlanc 1986) and fuelwood (Minnis 1985) resources 

are mentioned as examples of factors that might precipitate cycles of population movement. Soil exhaustion 

(Sandor and Gersper 1988; Sandor and others 1986) is 

also sometimes cited as a factor influencing regional 

settlement. Sequential movement might be the simple 

and convenient solution to resource depletion under 

conditions of low and discontinuous regional population. However, it is also clear that long-term sedentism 

was maintained in other sectors of the Southwest under 

environmental constraints as stringent or more so than 

those seen in southwestern New Mexico by Nelson and 

Anyon (1996).
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 37

To develop a general comparison, fuelwood and 

agricultural land requirements are examined for late 

prehistoric inhabitants of the study area and a single 

irrigation community of settlements sharing a canal network on the Gila River that was continuously inhabited 

for at least 800 years (table 3.5). Touchon (1988) used 

estimates for Emory oak in low-yield zones near the 

study area to show that sustained fuelwood needs could 

be supplied for the entire Borderlands population from 

approximately 155 km2 (60 square miles). However, 

sustainable fuel for the Classic period Hohokam in 

the Casa Grande irrigation community is a problem of 

substantially greater spatial scale. Between 388 and 971 

km2 (150 and 375 square miles) of Sonoran Desert would 

be required to sustain the estimated level of fuelwood 

consumption by the Casa Grande community. This 

population was concentrated in an area of 78 km2 (30 

square miles). Problems of resource sustainability for 

even the largest Borderlands settlement clusters were 

minor compared to similar challenges for these densely 

packed Gila River irrigators.

Ceramic variability from one valley to the next is 

critical to Nelson and Anyon’s (1996: 279) argument of 

sequential movements among fallow valleys. They reason 

that regional phases are difficult to establish because the 

ceramic assemblages in each valley are somewhat different, probably resulting from a lack of contemporaneity. 

Their model does not take into account the fact that the 

ceramic divisions among Borderlands valleys continue to 

the south into Chihuahua and Sonora, as do distributions 

of settlement during this period (Brand 1943; Sauer and 

Brand 1930; Whalen and Minnis 2001). Crossing the 

border at Antelope Wells, Brand (1943) continued to 

record Animas-like sites into the Carretas Basin. Files 

at the Amerind Foundation document six large sites 

(100 to 400 rooms) along the San Bernardino River 

between Fronteras and the international border in Sonora,

suggesting that Slaughter Ranch and perhaps the Boss 

Ranch/San Bernardino complex are the northernmost 

expressions of a settlement distribution that stretch a 

considerable distance into Mexico.

The quality and extent of archaeological work in the 

Malpai Borderlands study area make it difficult to evaluate 

the “Short-term Sedentism/Fallow Valley” hypothesis. 

Site survey records do indicate that some continuity 

exists in settlement location between Mimbres horizon 

and later prehistoric villages. Large assemblages of 

heavily worn and worn-out grinding implements exist at 

many sites, suggesting some span of stable occupation 

(see, for example, Kidder and others 1949: fig. 22–23; 

and Brand 1943: 118–120, particularly the description 

of Double Adobe Creek on p. 119). The same degree of 

ceramic variability noted by Nelson and Anyon (1996) 

for Borderlands sites also occurs to the south among the 

contemporary sites of northern Sonora and Chihuahua 

and must reflect cultural factors as well as time. Finally, 

as will be discussed in the following section, even the 

most generous population estimates suggest that the 

Borderlands region always had relatively low populations, 

which should have exerted less pressure on resources than 

residents of various other Southwestern regions.

Settlement Hierarchies and Territorial 

Communities—Several discussions of late prehistoric 

settlement hierarchies in the study area have focused on 

site-size rankings. Steven LeBlanc (1989: 193) uses differences in site size as evidence that large pueblos were 

lower-order centers in the Casas Grandes polity. Findlow 

and De Atley (De Atley 1980; Findlow and De Atley 

1976) also suggest an Animas phase settlement hierarchy, 

although they do not imply a dependency relationship 

with Casas Grandes. Their hierarchy is based primarily 

on site size, supported by artifact densities and diversity. 

The hierarchy consists of primary and secondary villages 

and at least some field houses.

Table 3.5. Interregional comparison of estimates for demographic parameters and resource requirements.

Community Estimated populationa Hectares of farmlandb Cords of firewoodc

Late Prehistoric Animas Pueblos 1,300 520 2,600

Average Hohokam Platform Mound 

Community in the Casa Grande 

Irrigation Community 2,300 1,041 3,450

Casa Grande Irrigation Community 13,800 6,245 9,370

a

The estimate for the Animas population is from Findlow and De Atley (1976: 40), as amplified by Lekson (1992: 113). Estimates for an individual 

Hohokam platform mound community and the entire Casa Grande system are based on Crown (1987b) and the population/ha ratio for Pima 

irrigated land in Castetter and Bell (1942: 54). b

Estimates for the Hohokam are from Crown (1987b), and for the Animas region were derived from the population/ha ratio of Pima irrigated land.

c

Fuelwood consumption per capita is based on Spoerl and Ravesloot (1994). Consumption estimates are arbitrarily reduced by 25 percent for 

Animas and 50 percent for the Hohokam because of proportionately milder climates.
38 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006

Douglas (1995: 247–248) takes issue with attempts 

to define any sort of settlement hierarchy or integrative 

settlement structure above the village level. He observes a 

strong correlation between settlement size and agriculturally favored locales and favors a strong likelihood that 

tendencies towards larger site size may occur later in time 

during the Animas phase. He notes that archaeologists in 

the region frequently divide occupational loci dispersed 

over several kilometers but functioning as a single village into multiple sites; separate designations for the 

Boss Ranch and San Bernardino sites is a good example 

(Douglas 1996; Myers 1985). Finally, Douglas (1995: 

246–247) and De Atley (1980) both note the apparent 

absence of ritually integrative features that mark integrative or communal nodes in a settlement hierarchy.

Earlier records, new comparative information, and 

site visits undertaken in the course of preparing this 

overview strongly suggest that politically and ritually 

integrative nodes marked by ballcourts are present in late 

prehistoric Borderlands settlement. These features may 

have been frequently overlooked by study area investigators because of their unobtrusive character and failure 

to match expectations for ballcourt morphology. Recent 

survey investigations in the Casas Grandes region have 

demonstrated numerous instances of ballcourt structures 

and have provided new criteria for their recognition 

elsewhere (Naylor 1995; Whalen and Minnis 1996). In 

the area surrounding Casas Grandes, courts in locales 

with appreciable settlement do not always occur within 

the largest site. Orientation seems to be consistently 

north-south. Although some Chihuahuan ballcourts are 

clearly I- or T-shaped, others are marked on the surface 

by simple parallel arrangements of rocks (Whalen and 

Minnis 1996).

The clearest examples of ballcourt structures in the 

Malpai Borderlands are at Joyce Well (Carpenter 1992) 

and the Timberlake Ruin (O’Laughlin and others n.d.). 

Both consist of north-south parallel embankments delimiting field areas of 650 and 850 m2

 (6,997 and 9,149 ft2) 

respectively. A third possible instance is a heavily disturbed depression and set of embankments at the Maddox 

Ruin in the Animas Valley (Thomas O’Laughlin, personal 

communication). This feature is also oriented north-south 

and has an area of approximately 700 m2 (7,535 ft2). A 

fourth probable ballcourt, at New Mexico EE:5:1 (Animas 

Peak), is located to the south in the Animas Valley and 

was recorded by Roger Kelley (1963). The structure is 

oriented north-south with a field area of 480 m2 (5,167 

ft2) and is associated with a pueblo of approximately 100 

rooms. On the site card, Kelley indicates that the court 

is associated with School of American Research site 

62Hi5 (the Cowboy site). Recent information from Roger 

Kelley (personal communication) and Curtis Schaafsma 

(personal communication) indicated that the actual site 

location might be near Clanton Draw. Brief reconnaissance 

by the authors in the vicinity of Clanton Draw and the 

Cowboy site failed to reveal evidence of a court. Using 

locations of known ballcourts and approximate locations 

for others, late prehistoric settlement in conjunction with 

ballcourt distributions is presented in figure 3.9. Finally, 

since preparation of this volume, a small (440-m2 [4,736-

ft2]) ballcourt oriented north‐south has been identified at 

the Culberson Ruin 7 km (4.3 miles) southeast of Joyce 

Well (Skibo and others 2001: 120).

Several ballcourts and possible ballcourts are reported 

just beyond the boundaries of the Malpai Borderlands 

study area. A court was recorded immediately west of 

Janos by Whalen and Minnis (2001). Naylor (1995) 

describes a ballcourt at Las Palmas just off the JanosCarretas Pass Road in Chihuahua. William Doolittle 

(1984) describes two possible ballcourt structures in the 

Rio Sonora farther to the west. Beatriz Braniff-C. (1992) 

describes rectangular enclosed structures (corrales) that 

Whalen and Minnis (1996) believe may be ballcourts 

elsewhere in northern Sonora. A north-south Casas 

Grandes-type court is also recorded at the Santa Cruz 

site east of Nogales, Sonora (Kelley 1963; Wilcox and 

Sternberg 1983: 127). North-south parallel alignments 

at two sites north of Nogales along the Santa Cruz River 

reported by Frick (1954, also Whittlesey 1996) fit the 

criteria for additional instances.

The “great kiva,” a likely ballcourt, at the Ringo site 

northwest of the Borderlands, may have implications 

for ballcourt recognition. The feature was marked on 

the surface by a shallow depression that was delimited 

by low adobe walls upon excavation. The flat floor 

showed patches of a former adobe surface. The feature 

is oriented north-south and encompasses approximately 

900 m2 (9,688 ft2). The excavators, Alfred Johnson and 

Raymond Thompson (n.d., 1963: 469), considered the 

possibility of a ballcourt structure but rejected the idea 

because the structure was rectangular, unlike the oval 

courts of southern Arizona. Based on current knowledge 

of the Chihuahuan instances, Raymond Thompson (personal communication) now believes that this feature is 

most probably a Casas Grandes-style ballcourt. Without 

surface markers, other adobe courts might be dismissed 

as in the Ringo site instance.

Given conceptual and physical problems of recognition, it seems likely that ballcourt structures were at 

least somewhat more numerous than present records 

indicate for the Borderlands and other portions of the 
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 39

northwestern periphery of the Casas Grandes regional 

system. We believe that these structures served as the 

focal, communal architecture for multisite communities 

similar to those now well established for the Hohokam 

culture area (S. Fish and Fish 1994) and other parts of 

the Southwest (Adler 1996; P. Fish and Fish 1994). In 

the apparent absence of kivas, platform mounds, or other 

integrative structures, events associated with ballcourts 

probably represent institutions and activities that crosscut 

social constituencies and ideologies, promoting commonality throughout community territory. A detailed 

model for zonally arranged multisite communities with 

differentiated topographic opportunities in the Malpai 

Borderlands is offered in chapter 6.

In a recent reanalysis of the occupational history of the 

Pendleton Ruin, John Douglas (2004: 432–434) argues 

that rooms at the plaza edge were intentionally filled to 

form a platform mound during the mid-14th century. Room 

walls would have functioned as retaining walls for mound 

fill as in well-documented Hohokam platform mounds 

in the Safford (Mills and Mills n.d.), Tonto (Craig and 

others 1998), and Tucson (Hayden 1957) Basins. It is 

conceivable that other such instances of mound construction will be identified in the Malpai Borderlands and the 

broader Casas Grandes regional system. If so, another 

indicator of centralized ritual or public architecture will 

be available to identify differentiated settlement patterns 

and community organization.

Regional Integration and Interaction

The degree to which Borderland settlements were 

integrated by the Casas Grandes polity has been the 

crux of a debate central to the interpretation of late 

prehistory in the Borderlands. Charles Di Peso (1974: 

778) viewed Animas phase sites initially as satellites 

providing Casas Grandes with turquoise and obsidian, 

and later as population refuges after the collapse of the 

city in the early 14th century. Similarly, Steve LeBlanc 

(1989) portrays Animas settlements as outposts of Casas 

Grandes developed following the collapse of the Chaco 

Canyon and Mimbres cultural systems and the demise 

of their role in trade with central Mexico.

Other models portray considerably less economic and 

political dependency on Casas Grandes. De Atley (1980) 

and De Atley and Findlow (1982) describe Animas phase 

settlements as a frontier phenomenon, with loose participation in a Casas Grandes exchange system. Paul Minnis 

(1984, 1989) finds little linkage between the two areas and 

describes Borderlands villages as essentially autonomous. 

Figure 3.9. Distribution of probable ballcourts in the Malpai Borderlands.
40 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006

Douglas (1995) argues that relationships were probably 

dynamic and situational, dependent on shifting alliances 

and exchange relations. The several measures traditionally 

used to measure Casas Grandes‐Animas interaction are 

architectural traits, ceramic styles and production, and 

access to prestige goods.

Architectural Traits—Comparison with Chihuahuan 

patterns of architecture have been used to both support 

(Brand 1943; Carpenter 1992; Di Peso 1974; Le Blanc 

1989; Ravesloot 1979) and refute (Douglas 1995: 243; 

Kidder and others 1949: 146) Animas phase affinity with 

Casas Grandes. The absence of T-shaped or keyholeshaped doorways, raised and scalloped hearths, collared 

postholes, and subfloor inhumations at the Pendleton 

Ruin caused Kidder (Kidder and others 1949) to reject a 

Chihuahuan affiliation and to adopt the term “Animas.” 

More recent excavations have demonstrated the widespread existence of these traits in southwestern New 

Mexico and southeastern Arizona (table 3.6). These traits 

measure relationships at the level of horizon style and 

reflect some degree of acceptance of “norms” that serve 

to distinguish broad cultural patterns. However, they do 

not measure intensity or manner of interaction.

Ceramic Styles and Production—John Carpenter 

(1992) shows that Animas phase settlements fall within a 

zone of Ramos Polychrome distribution that is separated 

from Casas Grandes by an intervening area of Carretas 

and Huerigos polychromes (fig. 3.10). Suzanne De 

Atley (1980; De Atley and Findlow 1982) attempted to 

measure the integration of the Borderlands region by 

Casas Grandes through attributes of style, but her results 

have been seriously challenged on grounds of sample 

size and an assumption of local production of ceramics 

(Douglas 1995: 247; Minnis 1984, 1989). Recently, 

some compositional evidence has indicated that local 

production of Ramos Polychrome occurred in the Sulphur 

Springs Valley of southeastern Arizona (Woosley and 

Olinger 1993), and at the Culberson Ruin (Woosley and 

Olinger 1993) and Joyce Well (Carpenter 1992, 2002) 

in southwestern New Mexico.

Access to Prestige Goods—Minnis (1984, 1988, 

1989) argues that certain types of prestige goods characteristic of Casas Grandes are rare (shell, turquoise) 

or absent (copper, macaws) in Animas phase sites. On 

the other hand, John Douglas (1995: 246) points out 

that frequencies of prestige items may not equate with 

level of interaction or strength of integration. Douglas 

also notes that, with few burials and no exposed ritual 

contexts, excavated data may not be adequate to make 

such comparisons. Nevertheless, qualitative data from 

the study area and adjacent locations indicate a degree of 

access to prestige goods. Abundant shell and numerous 

artifacts of turquoise, slate, and hematite were recovered 

from funerary contexts at Joyce Well (McCluney 2002: 

34–35), the one site where significant numbers of burials 

have been excavated. Two small copper pendants were 

recovered from the San Bernardino site (Myers 1985). 

Further south in the San Bernardino Valley, Braniff-C. 

(1992: 496) reports three copper bells from Ojo de Agua 

and two from Rancho Baviso. U-Bar and Pinnacle Caves 

produced large quantities of scarlet macaw feathers 

(Lambert and Ambler 1961: 101; C. Schaafsma, personal communication). Although not fitting the criteria 

established by Minnis and others (1993: 272–273), a 

possible macaw pen was identified at Slaughter Ranch 

(Mills and Mills 1969a).

Antelope Wells obsidian is a Malpai Borderlands 

resource that might have been economically valuable to 

Casas Grandes. Recent x-ray florescence studies of obsidian samples from the vicinity of Casas Grandes indicate 

frequent use of this resource. Furthermore, regional 

obsidian studies have also revealed that Antelope Wells 

material seldom occurs in assemblages to the north and 

west outside the distribution of Chihuahuan polychrome 

Table 3.6. Distribution of Casas Grandes architectural traits among excavated late prehistoric sites in southeastern Arizona and 

southwestern New Mexico.

T-shaped or Raised Scalloped Collared

Site keyhole doorways hearths hearths postholes Reference

Ringo Site Johnson and Thompson 1963

Kuykendall Present Present Present Mills and Mills 1969a,b

Boss Ranch Douglas 1985, 1996

Clanton Draw McCluney 1965

Box Canyon Present Present Present McCluney 1965

Pendleton McCluney n.d

Joyce Well Present Present Present Present Kidder and others 1949

Montoya Present Present Ravesloot 1975

Walsh Present Present Ravesloot 1975
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 41

(Steve Shackley, personal communication). Although 

this possible pattern of dual overlapping distributions 

does not necessitate any kind of economic dependency 

between the Malpai Borderlands and Paquimé, it deserves 

investigation as it may signify the directionality and 

special concentration of some economically interactive 

relationships.

A Final Comment on Regional 

Interaction_________________________

Most discussion of Casas Grandes-Borderlands 

interaction has focused on the presence or absence of 

dependency relationships in a political and economic 

sense. We can agree with Douglas (1995) and Minnis 

(1984, 1989) that current evidence for such asymmetric 

interaction is limited. On the other hand, it seems likely 

that late prehistoric Borderlands inhabitants participated 

at some level in an ideology that was shared with, and 

most elaborately encoded at Casas Grandes. This ideology involved the construction of ballcourts, and related 

tenets were probably symbolized in certain ceramic and 

architectural “horizon styles” (see Wilcox 1995: 289). This 

ideology was clearly differentiated from a Hohokam and 

Figure 3.10. Distribution of Chihuahuan polychrome styles as outlined 

by Carpenter (1992).

western Salado ceremonial focus on platform mounds to 

the northwest and an Anasazi kiva and plaza orientation 

to the north. Massive hillside structures of the major 

trincheras villages may delineate a similarly distinctive 

realm of ideological orientation to the west in Sonora 

(Downum and others 1994: 292–293; P. Fish and Fish 

1994: 22).

Casas Grandes clearly was a central exponent of this 

ideology. As defined archaeologically, this ideology likely 

represents a phenomenon broader than religion per se, 

perhaps in the realm of “world view.” Archaeologically 

recognized variants of architecture and ceramics are 

subsumed by the most conservative distribution of ballcourts (Whalen and Minnis 1996). This stylistic diversity 

is increased if most of the instances proposed herein 

prove viable. The number and variety of ritual features 

at Casas Grandes set this site apart from all other sites 

in the region containing ballcourts. Eighteen platform 

mounds, each with a different shape, three ballcourts, 

and a wide range of ritual rooms are present. Each of 

these probably served as a location for ceremonies that 

affected some segment of the Casas Grandes population 

(see Minnis 1989: 277–280). Current archaeological data 

are insufficient to clarify the roles Casas Grandes served 
42 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006

in this regional ideology; sharply contrasting models can 

be fitted to existing data.

David Wilcox (1995: 289–292), for example, proposes 

a system of ceremonial exchange between local elites, 

fostered by a version of the Mesoamerican ballgame, as 

a mechanism through which Casas Grandes exercised its 

influence and control. For the sphere within a 3.5 day walk 

of Casas Grandes that includes the Malpai Borderlands, he 

defines a system that was economically differentiated and 

politically dominated by the preeminent center. According 

to this model, the Casas Grandes regional system variously linked local elites to the center, and differentially 

facilitated exchange and tribute flowed among village or 

community nodes. As a result of recent surveys and ongoing excavations designed to illuminate the role of Casas 

Grandes in regional settlement, Whalen and Minnis (2000, 

2001) find little support for Casas Grandes hegemony 

or integration of outlying settlements beyond a range as 

short as 30 km (19 miles). Thus, based on the distribution 

of elements such as site size, ballcourts, production of 

crafts, and other exotics such as macaws and ceramics, 

these researchers would exclude the Borderlands and 

adjacent areas in Mexico from any direct political and 

economic influence of Casas Grandes. Furthermore, they 

argue that the notable sparsity of courts at a distance 

from Casas Grandes denotes substantially weaker local 

integration and that presence of courts need not imply 

any type of integration into the Casas Grandes regional 

systems (Whalen and Minnis 1996: 741–744)

Plausible models for ideological centrality and directional emphasis in material exchange can be offered that 

do not emphasize political or economic domination. For 

instance, Casas Grandes could have been the destination 

for regional pilgrimages, serving to ideologically reinforce and unite outlying populations without tribute or 

political control. Models featuring pilgrimage have been 

considered for Chaco Canyon (Judge 1984: 241–242, 

1989). There are examples of such pilgrimages in the 

ethnographic literature. For example, the annual Festival 

of San Francisco in Magdalena, Sonora involved multiethnic participants from all parts of Sonora and southern 

Arizona and is thought to have precontact origins (Dobyns 

1960; Griffith 1992). Pilgrimages represented an individualized mechanism through which widely separated 

communities might participate at different levels in Casas 

Grandes ideology. Trade, local alliances, and a variety 

of other political and economic negotiations were likely 

byproducts of such occasions.

Just as it is difficult with existing data to detail the kind 

of regional integration embodied by Casas Grandes-style 

ballcourts, it is difficult to specify their significance at 

the local Borderlands level. Although all northern and 

western examples would fit into Whalen and Minnis’ 

(1996: 737) simple, open ballcourt category, these too are 

morphologically variable. This variability includes size, 

construction material, and labor investment, which may 

have functional, ideological, and hierarchical implications. Unfortunately, none of the northwestern periphery 

sites with consensual or suspected ballcourts can be 

viewed in a context of comprehensive local settlement.

Despite these problems, the nature of the ballcourts 

themselves offers some insights into probable roles in 

local territorial organization. The communal nature of 

ballcourt construction is generally accepted. Furthermore, 

events held at these structures are also considered to be 

communal and frequently to have involved the competitive interaction of separate territorial entities. This 

interaction could have involved individual villages, but 

in the case of Hohokam ballcourts, interaction is generally conceived as taking place between “communities” 

or groups of settlements (Wilcox and Sternberg 1983). 

This kind of interpretation of ballcourt function seems 

no less applicable for Casas Grandes-style structures. 

It follows, then, that Borderlands sites with ballcourts 

served as integrative nodes for some community-like set 

of additional settlements.

Whalen and Minnis (1996) observe that the small 

number of courts at a distance from Casas Grandes 

indicate the majority of populations in these areas were 

not involved in ballcourt activities. However, the nature 

of internal integration and external interaction associated with ballcourt institutions is unknown. Whereas 

the participation of individual villages in Casas Grandes 

interactions may indeed have been autonomous in some 

cases (Douglas 1995), the presence of multiple ballcourts 

implies that groups of settlements also participated as 

territorial units in an ideology most elaborately expressed 

at that site. If ballcourts served as loci of intercommunity 

observances, the raison d’etre for their construction was 

a form of peer polity interaction.

To fully understand late prehistoric Borderland patterns 

within the context of the greater Southwest, the scale of 

reference ultimately must be extended beyond the Casas 

Grandes world system. Ballcourts were constructed in 

this system during an era when fully differentiated public 

architecture first appeared in other large sectors of the 

southern Southwest outside the earlier distribution of 

Hohokam-style ballcourts and Mogollon communal kivas. 

In addition to the Casas Grandes system, including Casas 

Grandes itself, these regional developments encompassed 

the appearance of platform mounds in Papagueria and 

the Tonto Basin and most likely the elaborated trincheras 
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 43

phenomenon centered in northern Sonora (P. Fish and Fish 

1994: 21–24). The confirmed and probable ballcourts of 

the northwestern periphery in figure 3.11 begin to fill a 

gap in the regional distribution of public architecture, 

and by inference community organization, in the poorly 

investigated area of juncture among Casas Grandes, 

Classic Hohokam, and Trincheras traditions. These developments also coincide with a dramatic reorganization 

of populations through abandonments and aggregation 

across the Southwest.

Figure 3.11. Confirmed and probable ballcourts in northern section of Borderlands study area.
44 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 45

Introduction_______________________

The Hispanic period of Arizona and New Mexico spans 

roughly 320 years beginning in the mid-16th century with 

the arrival of Spanish explorers and culminating with the 

ratification of the Gadsden Purchase in June1854. This 

paper provides an overview of exploration, settlement 

and land use within and adjacent to the Borderlands 

during this time. From a review of historic documents, 

I will provide a general history and present information 

on Borderland ecology. The earliest descriptions of the 

environment are often brief and anecdotal, but of sufficient detail, in some instances, to permit comparison 

and contrast with present landscapes

Documentary Resources_____________

Selected primary and secondary sources of historic information include personal narratives and diaries, letters, 

and governmental correspondence. Many of the sources 

are English translations of original Spanish text. Because 

Spanish authorities were meticulous record keepers, we 

are fortunate to have many documents related to the study 

area. The most useful documents are field journals kept 

by officers during various offensive campaigns against 

the Apache in the region of the Gila River. For example, 

during the 1780 campaign, Don Teodoro de Croix required 

field captains such as Don Joseph Antonio Vildosola to 

present not only captives, but “... the account of the rations which may be supplied according to the Regulation 

and a faithful diary of the campaign...” (Thomas 1932: 

192). Diaries similar to Vildosola’s are brief but provide 

useful insight into the Borderlands region between the 

years 1695 and 1786. Dating between 1846 and 1853, 

the early diaries of George Cooke (1964) and Boundary 

Commissioner John Russell Bartlett (1854) also provide 

useful information about the terrain, climate, and impacts 

of human use.

Other documents reviewed for this summary include 

cultural resource management reports for Hidalgo County, 

New Mexico, and Cochise County, Arizona. All pertinent 

site records for the two counties were provided by the 

Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona Site and 

Survey File Office (AZSITE), and the New Mexico 

Cultural Resource Information System (NMCRIS). An 

international archival search for pertinent Spanish and 

Mexican records related to the region in question is 

beyond the scope of this paper.

The Land__________________________

The Borderlands consist of alternating mountain ranges 

and valleys extending north from the international border 

that divides the States of Arizona and New Mexico from 

the Mexican States of Sonora and Chihuahua (fig. 4.1). 

The Animas Valley of southeastern New Mexico lies in 

the center of the study area. This valley is bounded on the 

west by the southern range of the Peloncillo Mountains 

and on the east by the Animas Mountains. Immediately 

west of the Peloncillo range is the New Mexico-Arizona 

state line. Here, the heads of the San Simon and San 

Bernardino Valleys mark the westernmost extension of 

John H. Madsen

Chapter 4.

Summary of Spanish, Mexican, and 

Early American Exploration in the 

Borderlands
46 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006

the study area. East of the Animas range is the Playas 

Valley and beyond are the Little Hatchet, Hatchet, and 

Alamo Hueco Mountains.

Elevations within the basins of the San Simon, San 

Bernardino, Animas, and Las Playas drainages are 

between 1,200 and 1,600 m (4,000 and 5,200 ft) above 

sea level. In the Animas Mountains, Animas Peak towers to 2,621 m (8,519 ft) and the highest peak in the 

Peloncillo Mountains is Black Point at 1,980 m (6,467 

ft). The Chiricahua Mountains west of and adjacent to 

the Borderlands rise to a maximum of 3,070 m (9,976 ft) 

surpassing both the Peloncillo and Animas Mountains. 

The Guadalupe Mountains south of the Animas Valley 

are rough, steep, and broken but do not exceed 2,030 m 

(6,600 ft).

In New Mexico the Animas watershed drains north 

into the alkali flats of the Lower Animas Valley. The 

Playas watershed also extends north and drains into the 

dry bed of Playas Lake. Both playas become temporary 

lakes during seasonal flooding. In Arizona, San Simon 

Creek extends north between the Chiricahua Mountains 

and the Peloncillo Range and enters the Gila River near 

Safford, Arizona. The San Bernardino River heads in 

Arizona; it is the only large watershed in the study area 

that drains south into Mexico and eventually joins the 

Rio de Bavispe.

The Peloncillo and Animas ranges of New Mexico 

have sufficient height and mass to allow annual rains and 

a light snow pack to accumulate and create temporary 

high-elevation brooks. In years when precipitation is high, 

some streams flow into the basins. None of the higher 

ranges in the borderland nor the Little Hatchet or Hatchet 

Mountains of southeastern New Mexico have sufficient 

runoff to produce perennial valley streams. However, 

boggy seeps and springs are scattered throughout these 

valleys and along the flanks of most of the mountains. The 

Chiricahua Mountains on the western edge of the study 

area have considerable mass and more snowfall than the 

other ranges. Some perennial streams of the Chiricahua 

Mountains flow onto the mountain pediment.

History of the Borderlands___________

Exploration Period: 1534 to 1680

The first Europeans likely to have passed through the 

region were survivors of the failed Panfilo de Narvaez 

expedition. On June 17, 1527, Narvaez sailed from Spain 

with five ships destined for the Rio de Palmas and the 

Harbor of Panuco on the coast of present-day Texas. 

Near the end of their transatlantic voyage, tropical storms 

slowed the progress of the small armada and forced the 

expedition to reconnoiter in the Caribbean until early 

1528. Narvaez set sail for Havana, Cuba, but bad weather 

forced the armada to the west coast of present-day Florida 

and, unbeknownst at the time, nearly 600 leagues east 

Figure 4.1. Mountain ranges, valleys, and drainage systems of the Borderlands study area.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 47

of their original destination. Convinced by his pilot that 

he was near the harbor of Panuco, Narvaez and 300 men 

disembarked with supplies and horses and set out overland 

to explore the region. Some of the ships were ordered to 

sail west in search of the harbor of Panuco, where they 

were to wait and eventually meet with Narvaez. From 

April 15 to May 15, 1528, the expedition explored a 

considerable area in search of Apalachee, a region that 

native coastal populations described as a land of considerable agricultural productivity and mineral wealth, 

but none of these claims materialized. The inhospitable 

nature of the environment and the lack of cooperation by 

local tribes exhausted the expedition and they retreated 

to the coast.

By August 1528, the force was dwindling in size due 

to sickness and attacks by local tribesmen. Unable to 

find their ships, the leaders of the expedition voted to 

leave by sea and set about building five barges. By late 

September 1528, the expedition sailed west along the 

coast only to be scattered and beached by storms. Many 

men survived the landing only to perish on shore from 

exposure, hunger, and Native American attacks. A handful 

of survivors were enslaved by indigenous coastal populations and evaded death. After several years of wandering 

and being traded among various tribes, four of the men, 

Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, Andres Dorantes, Alonso 

del Castillo Maldonado, and Estevanico, were reunited 

and escaped from their captors in 1534. They made their 

way to the west coast of Mexico where they were found 

in 1536 by a small party of Spanish slave hunters.

The route taken by Cabeza de Vaca and his three companions is unknown, but scholars (for example Bancroft 

1889; Rodack 1981) argue for a route in northern Mexico. 

On the other hand, Hallenbeck (1940: 220–234) suggests 

that the four men made their way to the Rio Grande River 

where they eventually turned west and, upon reaching the 

Gila River in New Mexico, traveled south between the 

Dos Cabezas and Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona, and 

then through the San Bernardino Valley to the valley of 

Sonora. In support of Hallenbeck’s theory of the route, 

it is of note that as early 1851, travelers stopped at Ojo 

de Vaca south of the Mimbres River.

Interest in the unexplored northern regions grew as 

the story of Cabeza de Vaca’s journey spread. The hint 

of precious metals and reports of large Native American 

towns set the stage for expeditions into the uncharted 

country north of Mexico. In 1539, the Spanish viceroy, 

Don Antonio de Mendoza, picked Marcos de Niza and 

Onorato to investigate the northern country. Estevanico 

was selected as their guide because he had traveled as a 

member of the Cabeza de Vaca party and was familiar 

with the customs of some northern tribes. This expedition 

suffered many mishaps, Onorato fell by the wayside with 

illness, and Estevanico and a number of Native American 

allies met their demise at Zuni. Fray Marcos, who never 

entered the Zuni towns, returned to Mexico safely that 

same year.

Marcos de Niza’s glimpse of Cibola encouraged the 

viceroy, and he mounted a second expedition north in 

1540. This expedition, of grand scale, had several hundred participants both of European and Native American 

descent. Accompanied by Fray Marcos, Francisco 

Vazquez de Coronado left Mexico City and spent several 

months on the trail north. Between 1540 and 1542, the 

expeditionary force had explored a considerable region 

of what is now Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, 

and Kansas (Winship 1896). In addition, Coronado sent 

a considerable number of messengers and small parties 

back and forth over the trail between Zuni and Corazones, 

a small colony established by the expedition in northern 

Mexico.

The trail taken by Niza in 1539 and the route taken 

by the Coronado expedition in 1540 to 1542 have been 

debated for nearly a century and will be debated until 

physical evidence of the trail is found (Ivey and others 

1991). The majority of early scholars such as Bandelier 

(1892), Winship (1896), Herbert E. Bolton (1930), and 

many other contemporary scholars, would place the point 

of entry in the Borderlands at or near the San Pedro River 

in present-day Arizona. Di Peso (1974), Strout (1958), 

and to some extent Carroll L. Riley (1975), place the 

point of entry of both the Marcos de Niza and Coronado 

expeditions at San Bernardino (fig. 4.2), with the expedition continuing north on San Simon Creek along the west 

side of the Peloncillo Mountains and eventually east of 

the chain to the juncture of the Blue and San Francisco 

Rivers. The 1539 and 1540 routes proposed by Di Peso 

and others are not widely accepted but should not be ruled 

out. In support of Di Peso’s route, I would also contend 

that from San Bernardino these expeditions may have 

veered farther to the east and, after crossing the Gila 

River, may have followed the west flanks of the Burro 

and Mogollon Mountains, thereby intersecting the San 

Francisco River.

The return of Coronado to Mexico in 1542 marks a 

brief hiatus in documented Spanish exploration north 

of the present-day international border. It was not until 

1580 that there was a renewed interest in colonization 

and exploration of the Pueblo country. From 1581 to 

1582 Francisco de Chamuscado and Friar Agustin 

Rodriquez visited New Mexico with a small party of 

soldiers and Native Americans, and Antonio de Espejo 
48 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006

followed shortly in 1582. In 1590, Gaspar Castano de 

Sosa attempted to place a colony near Santo Domingo in 

present-day New Mexico but was ordered to withdraw 

the unauthorized expedition (Beers 1979: 3). In 1598, 

Spanish settlers under the command of Juan de Onate 

settled the upper Rio Grande Valley but were forced to 

flee to El Paso during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. It was 

not until 1693 that the Spanish regained a permanent 

foothold in the Pueblo land as a result of a vigorous 

campaign by Diego de Vargas.

Although none of the expeditions from 1580 to 1593 

passed through the study area, it is probable that the 

Upper Gila River and Animas region were traversed on 

occasion by hunters, trappers, prospectors, and Native 

American traders interested in the natural resources, 

information, and goods that the indigenous people of 

the region had to offer.

Spanish Sedentary Period: 1680 to 1821

It was not until the mid- to late-17th century that a Spanish 

presence was initiated in the study area. In the aftermath 

of the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, many displaced northern 

Spanish settlers began to migrate into the Casas Grandes 

Valley and the region of Janos. From the south, during this 

same period, settlers were moving steadily north into the 

river valleys of New Vizcaya and Sonora. As the migration 

continued, the indigenous population grew less tolerant and 

hospitable toward the newcomers. Naylor (1969: 11) notes 

that in 1684 the Suma, Concho, Janos, Jocomes, Mansos, 

and Apaches revolted. After this date, Native American 

revolt and short-term uprisings became a fact of life on the 

frontier of New Mexico, New Vizcaya, and Sonora; but 

in almost every instance the Spanish regained the upper 

hand and eventually those in rebellion yielded to Hispanic 

authority. The Apache, on the other hand, were persistent 

in their strategies of raiding and warfare, and the Spanish, 

no matter how hard they tried, could not force them into 

submission.

The Apache

The ethnography of the Athapaskan-speaking people 

called Apache has been thoroughly treated elsewhere and 

is not part of this overview. The historical information 

below provides a general sense of Borderlands use by 

Europeans and native peoples who frequented the area 

during the Hispanic period.

When the Spanish settled the region of Casas Grandes 

and Janos they clearly recognized a cultural difference 

between Apache, Suma, Janos, Jocome, and other tribes 

in that region, but by the early 18th century those Native 

Americans choosing to live near the missions and presidios were assimilated into the Spanish culture. Those 

groups refusing indoctrination allied themselves with the 

Apaches. For instance, a letter written by Captain Juan 

Figure 4.2. Fray Marcos de Niza (1539) and Francisco Vazques de Coronado (1540–1542) followed 

Native American trails north through Mexico, Arizona, and New Mexico in their search for Cibola. Charles 

Di Peso (1974) suggests these expeditions passed over the Peloncillo Mountains.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 49

Fernandez de la Fuente in 1695 indicates that displaced 

Suma, Janos, Jocome, Manso, Chinarra, and other Native 

Americans took shelter with the Apaches of the Gila River 

region (Naylor and Polzer 1986: 641). In addition “As 

the Apache gained dominance in the area the Spanish 

began referring to their allies by the same term....Thus in 

the west it appears that the remaining Sumas along with 

the Janos and Jocome merged with the Apache Tribe...” 

(Naylor 1969: 11).

Today the Apache of this region refer to themselves as 

Chiricahua, but throughout much of the Hispanic period 

we see reference to Gilenos, Ojo Caliente, Mimbrenos, 

and Mogollon Apaches. These bands lived on the banks 

of the upper Gila River and on the San Francisco and 

Mimbres Rivers. The permanence of Apache rancherias 

in the northern river valleys is revealed in three reports. 

At Zuni, Fray Silvestre Velez de Escalante wrote of a trail 

discovered from Zuni, New Mexico to Sonora in 1747. 

He noted that along this trail on the lower San Francisco 

River, Don Bernrado de Miera saw “... various rancherias 

of the Apaches who cultivate the valley and with the aid 

of irrigation, harvest much yellow corn” (Thomas 1932: 

155). Thomas (1932: 12) also noted similar evidence of 

permanent Apache rancherias in his translation of Hugo 

O’Conor’s diary. During O’Conor’s campaign against 

the Apaches in 1775, he crossed the Rio de las Mimbres 

and found a great number of Apache fields near Picacho 

de las Mimbres. And finally, Henry Dobyns’ (1981: 24) 

translation of Captain Comaduran’s diary of 1830 notes 

that the Apaches near Pinal Creek and the Gila River 

“...have planted many fields which their land affords 

them. They dedicate themselves greatly to cultivation. 

The headgate they have of stakes and earth diverts an 

abundance of water.”

The north-south orientation of the basin and range 

country of the Borderlands would have defined the most 

obvious path for the Apache coming down from the Gila 

country on raids. Spanish documents of military actions as 

early as 1650 suggest that the valleys of the San Simon, 

San Bernardino, Animas, and La Playa were corridors 

through which raiding parties from the well-watered 

Gila, San Francisco, and Mimbres Rivers reached the 

Hispanic frontier.

References throughout the translations by Thomas 

(1932) suggest many rancherias were located close 

to Janos and Fronteras between 1680 and 1790. 

Unfortunately these references provide no details on 

the nature of the rancherias. The rough terrain of the 

Chiricahua, Animas, and Peloncillo Mountains provided safety and shelter from the ever-present patrols 

dispatched from Janos and Fronteras during this period. 

There is also sufficient documentation to show that the 

springs and, in some instances, high-elevation perennial 

streams attracted Apache encampments, but it is not 

clear from the Spanish record whether these places often 

referred to as “rancherias” were locations frequented by 

Apaches prior to Spanish settlement of the frontier. The 

Chiricahua Apaches today certainly claim these ranges 

as homelands.

Apache and Euro-American Interaction

Beginning in the 1680s, the Apache staged opportunistic raids into fledgling Spanish communities from El Paso 

west to the Santa Cruz River. The Spanish settlements 

south of the Gila and Mimbres rivers bore the brunt of 

Apache forays. It is likely that in 1684 the Apaches assisted the Suma in burning Nuestra Senora de la Soledad 

de los Janos, a mission built in 1663.

To protect the settlers, presidios were built in Nueva 

Vizcaya and in Sonora’s Pimaria Alta (Beers 1979; Naylor 

and Polzer 1986). By 1686 San Felipe y Santiago was 

established as the presidio for the Janos region, and west 

of Janos a permanent presidio was established in 1690 in 

the Cabullona Valley in a place known as Santa Rosa de 

Corodequaci, which was later referred to as Fronteras. 

From these presidios and from neighboring hamlets, presidial troops, settlers, and Native American allies waged a 

general offensive campaign against the Apache and their 

allies between the mid-17th and early 19th century. After 

the Mexican Revolution in 1821, patrols from the same 

presidios continued along the northern frontier. Bartlett 

(1854: 268) observed 400 Mexican troops at Fronteras 

preparing a campaign against the Gila Apache in 1851.

Appendix D is an annotated summary of the frequent 

Spanish offensive campaigns in the Borderlands. Although 

these were some of the largest campaigns against the 

Apaches, they were not the only military incursions into 

the Borderlands. Boundary Commissioner John Russell 

Bartlett (1854: 295), for example, had a friendly encounter 

in the Guadalupe Mountains with 200 Mexican troops on 

patrol from the garrisons of Fronteras in 1851.

San Bernardino Presidio

Between 1766 and 1768 Marques de Rubi examined 

the frontier from Texas to Altar in Sonora with an eye 

on the effectiveness of the presidio line. The appalling 

condition of the presidios, due in part to constant Native 

American raids, convinced Rubi that the relocation 

of some presidios would enhance the defense of the 

province. By Royal Regulation the presidio realignment 

was authorized September 10, 1772. “To carry out the 
50 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006

royal order, Viceroy Bucareli commissioned Don Hugo 

O’Conor in 1772. By 1776 this officer, with the rank of 

Commander Inspector, had decided upon the exact sites 

and transferred the presidios to their new locations...” 

(Thomas 1941: 16).

Fronteras, the northeastern-most presidio in Sonora, 

was one of several outposts inspected by O’Conor and 

one of the few selected for repositioning. In 1775, the 

troops of this pueblo moved to the headwaters of the upper San Bernardino River at the present-day international 

boundary. As will be seen shortly, this was an ill-fated 

move that had to be corrected a few years later.

Fathers Garces and Juan Diaz first described the San 

Bernardino settlement in March 1775 as a good spot 

although with some inconveniences. It had the same 

number of troops as was assigned to Fronteras, namely, 

100 men. It provided 10 men for Buenavista, and another 

10 for the pueblo of El Pitic. It had 80 troops in all to 

protect the pueblos of its neighborhood and to pursue the 

Apache enemy (Bolton 1930: 285–286).

The realignment was ill conceived, and before long 

men such as Captain Don Joseph Berroteran and Don 

Juan Bautista de Anza were recommending that the 

government reconsider the presidio moves made by 

O’Conor. In 1776, Don Teodoro de Croix was appointed 

Commander General of the Interior Province of New 

Spain, and upon inspecting the frontier, he agreed that 

the realignment had in some instances made the Spanish 

defensive posture worse.

In 1777 to1778, Croix inspected the presidio line and 

observed that after the move of the presidio of Fronteras to 

the valley of San Bernardino in 1775, it was so far removed 

from presidios on either side (Janos and Terrenate) that 

it could neither give nor receive assistance from these 

places. He further stated (Thomas 1941: 146) that:

...when I went through the presidio of San Bernardino, 

I recognized that from that spot it could neither give 

nor receive assistance from the presidio of Janos. This 

contact, always difficult, was closed entirely to impede 

the ingress of Apaches into New Vizcaya and Sonora. 

The presidial company itself, reenforced with another 

flying company, was hardly discharging its obligation 

to defend the post and the horse herd, or furnishing 

escort for the mule train for their provisions....The 

building of the presidio of San Bernardino was just 

beginning; the works were menaced with ruin and 

funds consumed.

After his inspection, Croix quickly arranged for the 

abandonment of the post.

In 1820, Lieutenant Ignacio Perez sought a land grant 

at San Bernardino that extended a considerable distance 

into Sonora. James Officer (1987: 106–108) writes: “In 

May, 1822, Perez paid for the land—more than 73,000 

acres—but no formal title was ever issued. To stock his 

large ranch, Teniente Perez contracted with Father Estelric 

of the Tumacacori Mission for the purchase of 4,000 

cattle.” Further archival work might provide information on whether the ranch ever materialized. When the 

Mormon Battalion passed through San Bernardino 24 

years later, it was not occupied. On December 2, 1846, 

the Mormon Battalion descended Guadalupe Canyon. 

Cooke (1964: 139) notes:

...eight miles brought them into and across wide 

meadows to the old houses of the rancho of San 

Bernardino; it is enclosed by a wall with two regular 

bastions; the spring is fifteen paces in diameter. The 

soil was thought good, but the grass at the time was 

poor;...Before this rancho was desolated by Apaches, 

there were reported to be eighty thousand cattle on it; 

the Gila was said to be its northern boundary.

On May 21, 1851, members of the Boundary 

Commission also visited the ruin (Bartlett 1854: 

255–256):

San Bernardino is a collection of adobe buildings in a 

ruined state, of which nothing but walls remain. One 

of the buildings was about one hundred feet square, 

with a court in the center; and adjoining it were others 

with small apartments....The whole extending over a 

space of about two acres, was enclosed with a high 

wall of adobe, with regular bastions for defense. 

Being elevated some twenty or thirty feet above the 

valley, this hacienda commanded a fine view of the 

country around.

Because of the perennial springs, San Bernardino 

remained an important stop for weary travelers. There are 

other references to this spot in the diaries of immigrants 

on their way to California, but Cooke’s diary from 1846 

and Bartlett’s from 1854 are the most explicit descriptions 

of the springs during the Hispanic period. See Hispanic 

Arizona 1536–1856 by Officer (1987) for other diary 

accounts regarding San Bernardino.

Ecology, Landscape, and Colonial/

Mexican Period Use_________________

I begin this section with an overview of early observations made about the Borderlands environment from about 

the year 1680 through 1853. A general historic sketch is 

based on several books but, in particular, Thomas (1932, 

1941), Cooke (1964), and Bartlett (1854).

Water and Its Influence on Travel

The territory between what is now El Paso, Texas, 

and Tucson, Arizona, was one of the most troublesome 

regions to cross prior to the arrival of the railroad in the 
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 51

early 1880s. The availability of drinking water and good 

pasture for horses, mules, and oxen was an overriding 

concern for all who traversed this region. By 1854, the 

Borderlands had been crossed by many military detachments and by untold numbers of California emigrants. 

The names of some cienigas and springs appear repeatedly 

in field journals: San Bernardino, San Simon, Las Ojos 

de la Hacha (Hatchet); others became well known and 

influenced common routes of travel and lines of communication. The distances between perennial cienegas and 

springs were often great, and the reliability of intermediate 

springs and seeps was tenuous at best depending on the 

terrain and season of travel. Excerpts from three diaries 

(Anza, Cooke, and Bartlett) provide interesting insight 

into the region of the Borderlands and the influence of 

water on the development of routes for communication 

and commerce (fig. 4.3). Appendix D has additional 

information on trails and roads.

On November 9, 1780, Don Juan Bautista de Anza 

left Santa Fe with nearly 150 troops and as many settlers 

bound for El Paso. Anza’s plan was to caravan down 

the Rio Grande as far as Fray Cristoval where he and 

his troops would leave the settlers and turn west to open 

a route of commerce to Sonora. From the Rio Grande, 

Anza veered west to the Mimbres River where he hoped 

to meet with a detachment from Sonora and one from New 

Vizcaya to assist him in finding a good route southwest. 

Thirteen leagues below the lower Mimbres River, out of 

water and not finding the two detachments, Anza notes, 

“We arrived ...at an arroyo which gave hardly sufficient 

for our horses. This together with the sorefooted and 

wearied condition in which I observed the herd, obliged 

me to seek for it in better known regions. Though at a 

cost of greater circumlocutions, it saved the expedition” 

(Thomas 1932: 202).

Anza diverted his troops to the eastern springs of the 

Sierra de la Hacha north of Janos. South of La Hacha, 

Anza found the Camino Real running between New 

Vizcaya and Sonora. Disappointed and well east of his 

proposed route, Anza later blamed his failure to find 

a short route to Sonora on the lack of water. During 

this expedition he followed the Camino Real along the 

southern boundary of the Borderlands by going over 

the pass of Guadalupe to San Bernardino and then on to 

the old site of Las Nutrias. Anza’s caravan was plagued 

by heavy rain and snow from Santa Fe to the Mimbres 

River but still suffered from lack of water on the plain. 

Once past this plain he again encountered heavy snow 

in the Borderlands until he reached his destination, 

Arispe, Sonora, on December 18, 1780.

In his famous march of 1846 to the Pacific, Philip 

St. George Cooke lead the Mormon Battalion down the 

Rio Grande River from Santa Fe and veered to the west 

near Las Cruces in an attempt to find a direct route to 

Tucson. Unfortunately, Cooke encountered the same 

condition that Anza suffered several years earlier. Just 

below the lower Mimbres River on November 20, 1846, 

Cooke notes: “The guides had all returned, having found 

a little water in the end of a ridge, in a south-west course 

towards San Bernardino a deserted rancho, known only 

by report. By common consent the certainty of water 

at that point [thought to be about 70, but really above 

100 miles distant] made it an objective point; for all 

shrink instinctively from entering the vast table land to 

the west...” (Cooke 1964: 128). Cooke, like Anza, traveled under stormy conditions to the Mimbres, and like 

Anza, still found the plains west of the Mimbres dry and 

uninviting. Once over this plain, Cooke’s route passed 

through Las Playas, the Animas Valley, and through the 

Guadalupe Mountains to San Bernardino. Surface water 

within the Borderlands was present at every camp between 

Las Playas and the San Bernardino Valley.

One of the best accounts regarding the seasonal nature 

of some water supplies is provided by US Boundary 

Commissioner John Russell Bartlett (1854). In May 

1851, Bartlett lead a small expedition from the Santa 

Rita copper mines near present-day Silver City, New 

Mexico, to Arispe in the State of Sonora, Mexico. 

Bartlett’s plan was to follow the 1846 trail of Philip St. 

George Cooke through the Borderlands to the San Pedro 

River where Bartlett planned to turn south toward Arispe. 

Water holes described by Cooke were a major factor in 

Bartlett’s direction of travel. Bartlett’s party had little 

trouble in finding water in Las Playas, Animas, and the 

San Bernardino Valley, but many of the sources noted by 

Cooke could not be found or were disappointingly dry. 

Several hours past the ruins of San Bernardino Bartlett 

(1854: 258) notes:

We were again doomed.... No water was found. I now 

hastened back with all speed to Black Water Creek, 

where the train with the rest of the party had arrived. 

They were pondering what to do in the dilemma. 

Their disappointment being no less than my own. We 

had now come about twenty-two miles from the last 

water, and nearly forty from our last camping place 

in the Guadalupe Pass. So confident had we been on 

leaving San Bernardino that we should find water at 

this place, if not at two intermediate stations, that we 

had not taken the trouble to fill our kegs.

The water holes in the hilly country between the San 

Bernardino Valley and the springs of Agua Prieta noted 
52 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006

by Cooke in November 1846, but found to be dry by 

Bartlett in May 5 years later, were obviously seasonal 

sources.

After Boundary Commissioner Bartlett returned to 

Santa Rita from Arispe, he again set out due west toward 

the Gila River to meet with his Mexican counterpart, 

Commissioner Padro Garcia Conde. The meeting was 

to discuss the progress of the survey both groups were 

performing with respect to the new boundary between 

the United States and Mexico. During this trip Bartlett 

was guided west by a Mexican Lancer sent by the 

Mexican Commission. The route was through country 

familiar to Mexican troops and had been crossed by at 

least one emigrant train in 1849 (Etter 1995: 7). Bartlett 

followed Conde’s trail from spring to spring. The trail 

went from the Burro Mountains, southwest to a pass in 

the Peloncillo Range, on to the drainage of San Simon, 

and through Apache Pass between the Dos Cabezas and 

Chiricahua Mountains to the southern end of the Willcox 

Playa. Here, Bartlett found Conde in retreat south due to 

dwindling supplies.

The examples above reflect the character of water 

sources in and adjacent to the study area. The basin and 

range setting of the Animas, Peloncillo, and Chiricahua 

Mountains are subject to orographic rains. Undoubtedly, 

this moisture contributes to the springs along the edges of 

the intervening valleys, making these corridors preferred 

wagon routes. On the other hand, to get to these valleys 

by way of the Rio Grande/Mimbres route there was little 

choice but to cross the expansive 100-mile-long by 60-

mile-wide dry plain on the northern and northeastern edge 

of the study area. It lacked the advantage of orographic 

moisture and elevated land features that might bring water 

to the surface. Anderson (1864) refers to this plain as the 

Plateau of the Sierra Madre. Traveling east from the Santa 

Cruz River to the study area was not as difficult as long 

as water and sufficient supplies were carried. Although 

Bartlett (1854), Cooke (1964), Naylor and Polzer (1986), 

and Thomas (1932), remark on the locations of springs, 

most are general descriptions.

During drier seasons and periods of drought, travel 

through the Borderlands would have been debilitating 

to travelers and livestock. There are no journal entries 

concerning drought for the Borderlands from materials 

reviewed, but a diary entry made by Captain Don Antonio 

Cordero during one campaign mentions an apparent 

range fire caused by excessive heat in late November 

1785 (see Thomas 1932: 288). This suggests hot and dry 

Figure 4.3. The trails of Anza (1780), Cooke (1846), and Bartlett (1851). The trail through the Animas Valley was 

referred to as the southern route by American immigrants and was used prior to 1846 by Spanish and Mexican 

military patrols.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 53

condition, but oddly enough, 7 days later heavy snows 

covered the ground and 30 animals (horses or mules) 

died in the vicinity of the Animas Valley due to lack of 

pasture. Either the snow was covering the fodder or there 

was little grass in the valley that year.

In spite of a lack of specific references, the study area 

surely was impacted by the drought of 1670 and 1671 

mentioned by Di Peso (1974: 864–866) as the Southwest 

Scourge, and by the severe drought of 1684 in the Casas 

Grandes district (Naylor 1969: 11). A letter translated by 

Thomas (1932: 166–168) from Anza to Senor Governor 

and Commander General Croix notes a severe drought in 

or about the year 1779 that caused substantial hardship 

to the Zuni and other groups in a far-reaching area.

Comments on Flora and Fauna

Spanish military journals provide only a few general 

references to the ecology of the Borderlands, and it is 

difficult to compile a thorough description of the environment prior to the mid-1840s. For instance, the south side 

of the Chiricahua Mountains was described by Captain 

Don Joseph Antonio Vildosola in 1780 simply as a finelooking plain with water year round (Thomas 1932: 208). 

It is not until Cooke’s expedition in 1846 and Bartlett’s 

in 1851 that relevant comments were made about the 

interior of the Borderlands.

Cooke (1964: 134–139) described the Animas Valley 

as a smooth plain with the grama grass waving in the 

wind. Bartlett (1854: 250–255), five years later noted the 

same valley as having luxuriant grassland with black loam 

soils and with little wood for fires. Bartlett mentioned 

seeing a large grove of oak in the Animas Valley that 

was plotted on a sketch map prepared during Cooke’s 

march to the Pacific.

Both these leaders describe the mountains and broken 

ravines of the Guadalupe Mountains as being covered 

chiefly with live oak and cedars. Also mentioned are 

canyons with ash, walnut, sycamore, and cottonwood, 

and hillsides dotted with yucca and mescal, small cactus, 

ocotillo, and other shrubs.

Beyond the Guadalupe Mountains is the San 

Bernardino Valley. Here Cooke (1964: 139) described the 

soil at the ruin of San Bernardino as good, but the grass 

on December 1, 1846, as poor. Bartlett (1854: 259), on 

the other hand, related that the horses were let out to feed 

on the rich grass of San Bernardino in May 1851. Beyond 

this valley, Bartlett’s livestock suffered from poor grass. 

Both men note that the elevated country to the west of 

San Bernardino was covered with mesquite chaparral and 

thorny bushes. They may have been referring to the vast 

acacia forest that still exists in the area today.

Wildlife

In the mid-19th century, a considerable number of feral 

livestock roamed the western edge of the Borderlands. 

Wild cattle estimated in the thousands and herds of wild 

horses were commonly seen along the southern route 

between San Bernardino and the San Pedro River. The 

Mormon Battalion smoked a considerable amount of 

bull meat in 1846 prior to leaving the region. During 

Bartlett’s second trip from the Santa Rita copper mines to 

the lower Gila River in late 1851, his party encountered 

30 or 40 Mexicans from the town of Santa Cruz hunting 

wild cattle on the San Pedro River. These wild herds 

were a reminder of the failed attempt by the Spanish and 

Mexicans to gain a dominant position in the vast region 

controlled by Apache bands.

A number of comments were made about the wildlife 

of the Borderlands and adjoining regions. Antelope herds 

were observed in the Animas Valley and elsewhere by 

Cooke and Bartlett, suggesting they were plentiful, and 

three bears were observed by Cooke in the Guadalupe 

Mountains. California partridge, turkey, deer, goats, a 

young panther, grizzly bear, wolves, and various rodents and reptiles were noted by both men in adjacent 

regions. A flock of herons arose from the springs of San 

Bernardino in May 1851 as the Boundary Commission 

passed through the area to Arispe. The San Pedro River 

in 1846 was described as “...a fine bold stream!...[where] 

salmon trout, eighteen inches long, were caught” (Cooke 

1964: 144–145). When the Boundary Commission 

passed through the region in September 1851, Bartlett’s 

draughtsman Henry C. Pratt caught trout in Babocomori 

Creek some 7 miles above its juncture with the San Pedro 

River. Bartlett (1854: 396) described Babocomori Creek 

as a stream 20 feet wide and in some places 2 feet deep. 

Pratt also caught several small trout in a stream to the 

southwest that, more than likely was the headwaters of 

Sonoita Creek.

Concluding Remarks________________

Writers such as Dobyns (1981) or Hastings and Turner 

(1965) offer detailed discussion of the mid-18th and 19th 

century landscape. These authors compare and contrast 

the landscape of the past and near present and provide 

insight into change on a regional scale. Their accounts are 

based on multiple lines of evidence, including archival 

research.

Spanish settlement in the Borderlands was temporary; several Spanish troops with families moved from 

Fronteras to live at the springs of San Bernardino between 1775 and 1780, and a possible second occupation 
54 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006

occurred when a Mexican rancher attempted to gain title 

to the same land in 1820. His tenure in the territory was 

short lived. All other occupations of the Borderlands by 

Euro-Americans during this period seem to have been 

transient, consisting of camp sites.

Records consulted for this summary mentioned only 

two kinds of direct and intentional manipulation of the 

Borderlands environment, hunting of native game and 

occasional road building. In addition, the terrain around 

San Bernardino probably was cleared of trees for firewood, 

furniture, corrals, and construction material associated 

with building the fledgling presidio in 1775. The more 

important impact of introduced livestock and subsequently 

feral animals can only be inferred. Other indirect impacts 

resulted from the Euro-American presence. For instance, 

Bartlett (1854: 295–296) suggested that a range fire in the 

Guadalupe Mountains was caused by careless Mexican 

patrols. It is also likely that Spanish troops had occasion 

to leave camps and signal fires unattended as did the 

Apache and their allies. Appendix D provides further 

information on fire.

The impact of Mexican cattle ranching on the 

Borderlands is difficult to measure. Cattle and horse herds 

were abandoned upon the retreat of Mexican ranchers who 

deferred to Apaches by the early 19th century. Dobyns 

(1981: 79–89) suggests that large numbers of wild cattle, 

horses, and mules set the stage for substantial erosion and 

grass depletion in the late 1800s. Dobyns (1981) used 

estimates of wild herd size reported by early travelers 

passing through the San Bernardino Valley and San Pedro 

River drainage. For instance, he uses Bartlett’s estimate 

that there were over 100,000 head of feral livestock in 

the region in the early to mid-19th century. On the other 

hand, Sheridan (1995: 128) argues that early estimates 

of herd size were probably inflated. He (Sheridan 1995: 

129) notes that:

...cattle from the Mexican land grants must have 

clustered around the few springs and streams of the 

region, which may have given travelers the misleading 

impression that they were equally abundant away from 

water. Yet even though observers like LieutenantColonel Philip St. George Cooke noted cattle trails 

and wallows along the San Pedro River, they also 

described lush grasslands and a flowing stream with 

beaver dams and ‘salmon trout’ (possibly squawfish) 

in ‘great number’ up to ‘three feet long.’ Such riparian 

exuberance would not have withstood the hooves and 

teeth of vast herds.

Undoubtedly, wild livestock roaming the west flank 

of the Borderlands had an impact on the natural setting. 

They caused erosion by creating trails, grazed near water 

sources, and competed for pasture with herds of antelope 

and deer. Beyond this, the degree of impact cannot be 

specified. Such herds of feral cattle and wild horses were 

not encountered in the Animas Valley, possibly because 

the Peloncillo and Guadalupe Mountains form a barrier or 

because the livestock did not have time and opportunity 

to range beyond their original pasture, the abandoned 

Mexican land grants.

In summary, the Spanish, Mexican, and American 

presence in the Borderlands study area, prior to 1856, 

was transient. Notations on human-initiated range fires, 

short-term settlement, and ranching provide no measurable information to indicate whether the presence of 

these groups caused significant and lasting ecological 

change. However, it can be argued that between 1680 

and 1856 the Euro-American presence had a profound 

influence on the interaction between native peoples 

and the environment of the region. Once Spanish and 

Mexican patrols entered the Borderlands, native peoples 

relocated to more obscure locations and probably had to 

curtail much of their normal activity in an effort to remain 

hidden. Hunting in open country may have declined and 

resulted in increased herds of antelope and deer in the 

grasslands. Finally, signal fires, cooking fires in camps and 

villages, and fires used to flush out game or to increase 

forage for browsing game would have been used more 

discretely in an effort to avoid detection by Spanish and 

Mexican patrols.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 55

Introduction_______________________

Fire is a keystone process in most natural, terrestrial 

ecosystems. The vital role that fire plays in controlling the 

structure of an ecosystem underscores the need for us to 

increase our knowledge of past and current fire regimes 

(Morgan and others 1994). Dendrochronological reconstructions of fire histories provide descriptions of past 

fire regimes across a range of spatial and temporal scales 

(Baisan and Swetnam 1995; Swetnam and Betancourt 

1991; Swetnam and Dieterich 1985).

The historical fire regimes of the Borderlands ecosystem can be examined across broad spatial scales, 

from regional to local. Such cross-scale perspectives are 

needed because local scale patterns were embedded within 

regional scale patterns. These patterns are summarized 

by Swetnam and Baisan (1996), who compiled a network 

of 63 fire-scar chronologies from the Southwestern 

United States and demonstrated that fire recurrence was 

highly synchronous across the region and associated 

with interannual fluctuations in wet and dry conditions. 

Comparisons of individual fire histories revealed high 

variability in fire regime properties, such as fire frequency 

that were due primarily to local-scale influences such as 

vegetation composition, topography, or historical human 

impact. Hence, the influence of climatic variability on fire 

regimes was most evident at the coarse, regional scale, 

while the influence of other factors was most evident at 

the fine, local scales.

Climate and Study Area Information___

Dendroecological sites in southern Arizona are 

distributed throughout the basin and range topography 

that extends from the Colorado Plateau to the Northern 

Sierra Madre Mountains. The sites are predominantly in 

upper-elevation, forested areas. These mountain islands, 

referred to as the Madrean Archipelago, are depicted as 

forested peaks surrounded by a shore of oak woodlands 

and a sea of semidesert grasslands. The regional climate is 

semiarid with a bimodal pattern of precipitation distributed 

between the summer and winter months.

The typical fire season occurs in the late spring or 

early summer, prior to the onset of the summer monsoon 

rain (Baisan and Swetnam 1990; Barrows 1978). High 

lightning incidence, accumulated dry vegetation, high 

ambient temperatures, and low relative humidity combine 

to create optimum fire conditions in a window from about 

late May to early July.

Regional Fire History Study__________

Fire-scar based fire history reconstructions for the 

Borderlands area were compiled from the University of 

Arizona Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research’s database 

(Swetnam and Baisan 1996), and descriptive statistics 

were computed for these chronologies for the period 

1700 to 1900 (table 5.1 and fig. 5.1). These fire-scar 

chronologies have been grouped into five broad forest and 

woodland types: mixed-conifer (MC), a combination of 

Douglas-fir, white fir, and pine; ponderosa pine (PIPO); 

pinyon/juniper (PJ); and oak (OAK). These groups were 

based on the dominant overstory trees in the sites from 

which the fire-scarred samples were taken. The Mean 

Fire Interval (MFI) and the Weibull Median Probability 

Interval (WMPI) are measures of central tendency of the 

fire interval. A fire interval is considered the number of 

Margot Wilkinson-Kaye

Thomas Swetnam

Christopher R. Baisan

Chapter 5.

Borderlands Fire Regimes
56 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006

years between two successive fire occurrences (Romme 

and others 1980). The MFI is the average of all fire 

intervals within a specified area and designated time 

period (Romme and others 1980). WMPI is the estimated 

fire interval at which there is approximately a 50 percent 

probability of a longer or a 50 percent probability of a 

shorter fire interval occurring as computed by fitting 

a Weibull type model to the fire interval distribution 

(Grissino-Mayer 1995).

Swetnam and Baisan (1996) found that in general, 

historical fire frequencies decreased with increasing 

elevation and associated forest and woodland types. 

Fires burned at increasing intervals along the gradient 

from the lower pinyon-juniper, oak, and ponderosa pine 

cover types to the higher mixed-conifer sites. However, 

tremendous variability in fire frequency existed due to 

unique site characteristics, including topography and 

especially land-use history. This variability precludes any 

predictive generalizations of fire regimes based solely 

on forest or woodland type (as defined) or elevation. 

There was a tendency for slightly shorter fire intervals 

in ponderosa pine and mixed-conifer forests than in pure 

ponderosa pine stands. This may have been due to higher 

productivity in the more mesic sites that resulted in a 

more rapid buildup of fuels.

Despite the large variability of fire regimes at local 

scales, remarkable synchrony in fire events across the 

Southwestern region occurred during the pre-European 

settlement era. Swetnam and Baisan (1996) compared 

large and small regional fire years with a reconstruction of the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI). A 

regionalized PDSI for the Southwest was computed by 

averaging 13 grid point time series to a single time series 

that represents an annual drought magnitude fluctuation 

from AD 1700 to 1978 (Cook and others 1996). Small 

fire years (those with few fire-scar sites recording fires) 

were significantly correlated with years of above-average 

moisture, and large fire years were significantly correlated 

with years of below-average moisture. Additionally, 

there was a lagged relationship between the prior year’s 

Table 5.1. Site information and fire-interval statistics for fire histories in and around the Borderlands ecosystem.

Number Mountain Elevation Min-max. Standard

on map Site range Speciesa range in ft WMPIb fireinterval deviation

1 Lemmon Peak Sta. Catalina MC 8,750-8,960 7.9 2–17 4.8

2 Rose Canyon Sta. Catalina PIPO/MC 7,000–7,600 7 2–16 3.8

3 Mica Mountain Rincon PIPO/MC 6,790–8,530 6 2–13 2.7

4 Josephine Saddle Santa Rita Pine/Oak 6,800–7,200 7.9 3–21 4.2

5 Sierra Ajos Sierra Ajos Pine/Oak 6,890–7,218 5.1 2–11 2.5

6 Camp Point Pinaleno MC 7,546–9,600 8.7 2–26 6.5

7 Peter’s Flat Pinaleno MC 9,200–9,450 8.9 3–22 5.3

8 Rhylite Canyon, Middle Chiricahua PIPO/MC 5,920–6,300 14.2 4–50 11.4

9 Rhyolite Canyon, Upper Chiricahua PIPO/MC 6,800–7,000 12.2 4–31 6.7

10 Rhyolite Canyon, Lower Chiricahua Pine/Oak 5,600–5,920 8 1–17 4.6

11 Castle Creek Mogollon Rim PIPO 8,000–8,200 6.8 1–14 3.3

12 Thomas Creek Mogollon Rim MC 8,300–9,200 8.3 1–24 7

13 McKenna Park Mogollon PIPO 7,640–7,800 5.5 1–16 4.2

14 Gilita Ridge Mogollon PIPO 8,300–8,300 7.2 3–28 6.8

15 Black Mountain Mogollon PIPO/MC 8,400–9,300 5 1–20 4.5

16 Langstroth Mesa Mogollon PIPO/MC 7,800–8,400 4.5 1–22 3.8

17 Bearwallow Mogollon MC 9,000–9,600 14.4 2–32 10.9

18 Narrows Organ PIPO/PJ/Oak 7,000–7,300 9.5 3–21 6.5

19 Fillmore Side Canyon 3 Organ PIPO 7,200–7,800 13.5 4–23 5.6

20 Ice Canyon Organ PIPO 7,500–7,800 23.8 7–35 10.8

21 Fillmore Side Canyon 1 Organ PIPO 7,200–7,500 8.8 2–23 6.2

22 Ledge Site Organ PIPO 7,800–7,900 19.7 12–27 5.3

23 Snag Saddle Organ PIPO 7,800–8,000 18.7 9–27 8.1

24 Fillmore Side Canyon 2 Organ PIPO/MC 7,200–,7700 8.7 2–23 7.3

25 Upper Fillmore West Organ PIPO/MC 7,800–8,200 3.4 1–23 4.1

26 Animas Peak , North Animas PIPO 8,000–8,400 11.9 3–36 11.1

27 Animas Peak, South Animas PIPO/MC 8,000–8,100 12.6 2–32 9.3

a

MC = mixed-conifers, PIPO = ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa), PJ = pinyon-juniper. These designations refer to the dominant overstory tree species. All fire-interval statistics computed in years for the period 1700 to 1900 (Swetnam and Baisan 1996). See figure 5.1 for site locations. b

Weibull Median Probability Interval.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 57

climate values and large fire years in many ponderosa pine 

stands. Large fire years often occurred during drought 

years that were preceded by 1 to 3 years of above-average moisture conditions. The underlying mechanism 

behind this lagging relation was attributed to fine fuel 

(grasses, needles, herbs) buildup during the years of high 

precipitation. Hence, a severe drought year following 2 

or 3 wet years resulted in optimal burning conditions 

with an abundance of dry fuels. In contrast, comparison 

of regional fire years in mixed-conifer forests with the 

PDSI time series showed that large fire years depended 

only on extremely dry conditions during the fire year 

itself, with no important prior-year effects of climate. 

This suggests that fuel production was not limiting, but 

rather the key factor was dry fuels.

The regional comparison of fire dates reveals that local 

variations in fire regimes are embedded within large-scale 

patterns controlled to some extent by climatic variation. 

Although regional generalizations can be made, localscale fire histories indicate that topographic, vegetative, 

and historical land-use characteristics determine the range 

and variability of fire regimes.

Local Fire History Reconstructions____

Six studies from the Borderlands mountain ranges 

provide examples of variances in fire frequencies due to 

site-specific characteristics. The variability in fire regimes 

was associated with variability in vegetation composition, 

topography, and land-use history. The studies include: 

Rhyolite Canyon, the Rincon Mountains, the Pinaleno 

Mountains, and the Huachuca Mountains in southeastern 

Arizona, the Animas Mountains in southwestern New 

Mexico, and the Sierra de los Ajos Mountains in northern 

Mexico. Each study provides information on historical, 

spatial, and temporal fire patterns in the Borderlands region. When combined, these studies provide a large-scale 

picture of the role fire played in the area’s prehistory.

Rhyolite Canyon

Rhyolite Canyon drains a major watershed in the 

Chiricahua National Monument, on the northwestern side 

of the Chiricahua Mountains, Arizona. Mixed-conifer and 

oak woodlands are found on north-facing slopes and in 

canyon bottoms of the valleys, and evergreen xerophytic 

Figure 5.1. Site locations for fire history reconstructions. Numbers relate 

to information in table 5.1.
58 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006

plants of interior chaparral are found on the south-facing 

slopes. The fire-scarred species used to reconstruct the 

fire history in Rhyolite Canyon were ponderosa pine 

(Pinus ponderosa), Apache pine (Pinus engelmannii), 

and Chihuahua pine, (Pinus leophylla var. chihuahuana) 

Thirty-three samples were used to create the 380-year 

fire chronology, which was separated into three periods: 

1604 to 1801, 1801 to 1851, and 1851 to the beginning 

of large-scale grazing by livestock and the onset of active 

fire suppression (Swetnam and others 1992).

The synchrony of fire scars from 1604 to 1801 indicated 

that fires generally spread throughout the canyon with a 

Mean Fire Interval (MFI) of 14.6 years and a range of 9 

to 22 years. Slightly higher fire frequencies at the upper 

and lower elevations of the canyon compared to the fire 

frequency in the middle portion of the canyon suggested 

that not all fires burned throughout the whole canyon. 

Lightning likely started many high elevation fires, some 

of which spread down into the canyon, and grass fires 

probably also spread from the lower elevation. The regular 

fire regime found in the 17th and 18th centuries came to 

an abrupt end in 1801. There was an absence of fire scars 

in the upper and middle canyon for the next 50 years. This 

gap from 1801 to 1851 was anomalously long and was 

unusual compared to most other Southwestern fire history reconstructions in pine forests (Swetnam and Baisan 

1996). Swetnam and others (1989) hypothesized that a 

flood or debris flow within the canyon was responsible 

for this gap. Tree-ring samples from flood-scarred trees 

along the canyon bottom support this interpretation.

In the second half of the 19th century the fire frequency 

exceeded that of the pre-1801 regime. The highest frequency was found in the lower canyon with a MFI of 

6.0 years and a range from 3 to 9 years. Swetnam and 

others (1992) suggest that evidence of Apache occupation during that time may explain the high fire frequency. 

The possible role of fires ignited by Native Americans is 

discussed later in this chapter.

The fire history of Rhyolite Canyon was highly 

variable. The long interval in the early 1800s suggests 

that geomorphic events (floods and debris flows) may 

have been important interactions with resettlement fire 

regimes with Borderlands riparian canyons. Sources of 

fire ignition and the spread into these canyons include 

both high elevation conifer forests and low elevation 

grasslands and woodlands.

Rincon Mountains

The Rincon Mountain Wilderness is within the Saguaro 

National Monument in southern Arizona. Baisan and 

Swetnam (1990) combined modern fire and lightning 

records, analysis of fire-scarred trees, and historical accounts to reconstruct a fire history in the Wilderness area. 

The study focused on the fire regime of Mica Mountain 

above 2,134 m (7,000 ft). In the study area the slopes 

with northern aspects support a mixed-conifer vegetation 

type. The higher elevation south-facing slopes host a 

ponderosa pine/southwestern white pine (P. strobiformus) 

community referred to in this study as an “open pine 

forest” with a grassy understory and a number of small 

meadows interspersed. Lower elevations with southfacing slopes support pine communities with species of 

evergreen oak. Forty-nine samples, most from ponderosa 

pine and southwestern white pine (Pinus strobiformus), 

were used to reconstruct the fire history.

The fire history reconstruction showed that fires were 

probably large; fire dates recorded by fire-scarred trees 

were synchronous over the entire Mica Mountain study 

area, encompassing several thousand hectares. This may 

be due to the lack of topographic fire barriers within the 

study area. The MFI for the entire Mica Mountain study 

area was 6.1 years. The mixed conifer sites had a MFI 

of 9.9 years. The presence of quaking aspen (Populus 

tremuloides) stands indicates that high-intensity, standreplacing fires have played a role in the mixed-conifer 

system. Quaking aspen rapidly colonizes openings in the 

landscape caused by fires. In the mixed-conifer stands, 

patchy, high‐intensity, stand-replacing fires combined 

with the frequent low-intensity, surface fires to make a 

more dynamic fire regime in open pine forest.

In contrast to Mica Mountain, Rincon Peak showed 

more evidence of large-scale crown fires in mixed-conifer 

vegetation. Modern ignition records show that Rincon 

Peak was subject to less frequent, natural ignitions than 

Mica Mountain. The less frequent ignitions resulted in 

long periods without fire during which fuels accumulated. 

When an ignition did occur, the resulting fires were probably larger and more intense. This demonstrates the highly 

variable nature of fire regimes within a given vegetation 

type due to site-specific characteristics.

Despite the variation in fire occurrence between the 

sites, the areas sampled showed a period of no fires lasting 

at least 10 years in the first half of the 1800s. One area 

showed a 19-year fire-free interval from 1822 to 1841.

Baisan and Swetnam (1990) compared large fire years 

with a PDSI reconstruction. Large fire years were often 

associated with years of moderate drought that, more 

importantly, had been preceded by 2 to 6 years of abovenormal moisture conditions. As previously discussed, this 

pattern has also been found in a coarser scale analysis 

of the entire Southwestern region fire history database 

(Swetnam and Baisan 1996).
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 59

The last large fire was in 1886. This abrupt change in 

fire frequency coincided with the removal of the Apaches 

from the area and the increased land use by Anglo and 

Hispanic settlers. Baisan (1990) found no evidence that 

the fire frequency in the Rincon Mountains was elevated 

due to fires ignited by the Native Americans. The incidence 

of lightning ignitions, based on 20th century records, appeared to be high enough to account for the fire frequencies 

observed in the presettlement period.

Pinaleno Mountains

Mt. Graham in the Pinaleno Mountains in southeastern Arizona is a rich area for investigating multiple 

and interacting roles of forest disturbance, climate, and 

land-use history. Ninety fire-scarred samples from two 

mixed-conifer sites were analyzed for the fire history 

reconstruction, and 291 samples from adjacent spruce-fir 

sites were analyzed for stand age structure (GrissinoMayer and others 1995). The mixed-conifer sites had a 

MFI of 4.2 years before 1880. This is the shortest mean 

fire interval yet found in mixed‐conifer sites studied 

in the Southwestern United States and is similar to the 

MFI commonly documented in presettlement ponderosa 

pine stands. Historical fires in mixed‐conifer stands on 

Mount Graham are thought to have been low-intensity, 

surface fires that spread over at least 400 ha due to few 

topographic barriers. The sharp decline in fire occurrence 

around 1880 found in the fire-scar record coincided with 

a rise in grazing in the area.

Based on the stand age-structure of the spruce-fir 

site and the fire history from the adjacent mixed-conifer 

site, Grissino-Mayer and others (1995) suggest that a 

stand-replacing fire burned through the spruce-fir area 

around 1685. This was a year of widespread fires in the 

two mixed-conifer sites. Following the fire, Engelmann 

spruce (Picea engelmannii) dominated the stand and 

corkbark fir (Abies lasiocarpa var. arizonica) regenerated 

in smaller numbers. Corkbark fir then experienced a pulse 

of recruitment in the 1840s. Grissino-Mayer and others 

(1995) suggest this recruitment may have been partly due 

to extended drought conditions and the superior ability 

of corkbark fir to establish in low-light, closed canopy 

conditions.

Dendroclimatological comparisons between drought 

and fire occurrence showed a relationship between fire 

events and severe drought events. These fire events were 

often preceded by several years of above-average moisture 

conditions (Baisan and Swetnam 1995; Swetnam and 

Baisan 1996).

Comparison of the fire history from the mixed-conifer 

stands and the stand age structure of a spruce-fir stand 

shows that fires only rarely spread from the mixed-conifer 

into the spruce-fir forest. Fires in the spruce-fir forests 

were rare and stand replacing when they did occur. 

Frequent, low-intensity fires probably maintained the 

stability of both the mixed-conifer and spruce-fir stands. 

The frequent surface fires in the mixed conifer probably 

kept the forest open and parklike, and therefore less 

susceptible to high- intensity, stand-replacing burns. 

The proximity of these open mixed-conifer forests may 

have also preserved the spruce-fir forests for long periods 

because high-intensity crown fires sweeping up from 

lower elevations were unlikely to spread through the 

crowns of the mixed-conifer stand. Conditions have now 

drastically changed on Mount Graham. Closed canopy 

forests extend from the pine through the mixed-conifer 

zone on the mountain, threatening red squirrel habitat and 

astronomical observatories with catastrophic fire.

Huachuca Mountains

A fire history covering the last five centuries is currently 

being reconstructed for the area surrounding Pat Scott 

Peak, located at the boundary between Fort Huachuca 

Military Base and the Miller Peak Wilderness Area in the 

Huachuca Mountains in southeastern Arizona (Danzer 

n.d.). Overstory vegetation of the study area consists 

mainly of ponderosa pine, southwestern white pine, and 

Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga mensiezii), with an understory 

of gambel oak (Quercus gambelii) and alligator juniper 

(Juniperus deppeana). The fire chronology is based on 

fire-scar samples from 33 trees and spans the period from 

A.D. 1499 through 1993.

The period from 1700 to 1899 was used for analysis 

of fire frequency because of the limited sample depth 

prior to 1700 and the lack of recorded fires after 1899. 

Fire interval statistics were analyzed separately for three 

periods: 1700 to 1899, 1700 to 1806, and 1807 to 1899. 

In addition, the fire frequency was calculated for three 

classes of fires. The first class included all fires that were 

recorded by the sampled trees. The fire data were then 

“filtered” by including only those fires that were recorded 

by less than 10 percent of the trees (interpreted to be small 

or spatially patchy fires) and by 20 percent of the trees 

(interpreted as large) (table 5.2). Fire interval statistics 

indicate that two types of fires were common in the area: 

small fires burned at an interval near 3 to 6 years, and 

less frequent, widespread fires burned at intervals from 

7 to 9 years.

The effects of landuse on the fire regime of Pat Scott 

Peak were easily distinguishable by the end of the 19th 

century. Following 1874 few surface fires occurred, 

and by 1914 they were completely eliminated. The last 
60 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006

widespread fire occurred in 1899, and may have been 

due to the excessive buildup of fuels associated with the 

previous 25-year absence of fires. This drastic decrease 

in fire frequency was attributed to grazing, logging, and 

fire suppression activities associated with the growing 

population of settlers in the area (Danzer n.d.).

Animas Mountains

A fire history reconstruction in the Animas Mountains 

in New Mexico provides evidence of a mixed surface 

fire/crown fire disturbance regime for the range (Baisan 

and Swetnam 1995). The complex topography of the area 

resulted in a mosaic of plant communities determined 

largely by elevation and aspect. Coniferous forests are 

found on northeast-facing slopes and in mesic canyons. 

The fire history reconstruction in the conifer forests 

provided a unique insight into the interactions of fuels, 

vegetation, topography, and land-use history.

A combination of the rough topography, the heterogeneous vegetation, and the limited ignition sources for the 

Animas range resulted in occasional stand-replacing fires 

and episodic surface fires in the area. This fire regime was 

interrupted in the first half of the 20th century when the 

USDA Forest Service had jurisdiction of the range and 

practiced active fire suppression. The conifer forests of 

the Animas Mountains support a fire regime characterized by both frequent, low-intensity fires and occasional 

stand‐replacing fires. Site-specific characteristics have 

overridden it with a more dynamic, mixed-fire regime.

Sierra de los Ajos Mountains

The Sierra de los Ajos Mountains are in northern 

Sonora, Mexico. The upper elevations of these mountains support conifer forests. In contrast to the Animas 

Mountains, the Sierra de los Ajos have a fire regime that 

is representative of the typical ponderosa pine forest 

type, with a MFI of 5.4 years. The Sierra de los Ajos 

have the unique characteristic of a continuous fire history 

throughout the 20th century. These mountains have not 

experienced disruptive fire control and intensive grazing 

characteristic of the mountain ranges north of the United 

States-Mexican border.

Table 5.2. Mean Fire Interval (MFI) statistics for three periods and three classes of fires at 

Pat Scott Peak, Huachuca Mountains, southeastern Arizona (Danzer n.d.b).

Class of Fire MFI 1700 to 1899 MFI 1700 to 1806 MFI 1807 to 1899

All fires recorded 3.2 3.5 2.7

10% filtered 6.5 6.4 6.7

20% filtered 8.5 9.9 7.3

Human Influence on Fire Histories____

The four major human influences on natural fire regimes 

in the Borderlands region in recent centuries have been the 

use of fire by the Native Americans, livestock grazing, logging and fuelwood harvest, and fire suppression. Although 

not all of these latter factors were influential upon the 

fire regimes during the prehistory of the Borderlands, 

they have all had an effect on our ability to understand 

the natural role of fire in forested systems.

Lightning versus Human Ignitions

Generally, it is difficult or impossible to completely 

distinguish between natural and human-caused ignitions 

in the historical record. Morgan and others (1994: 104) 

point out that “only the results of fire can be observed, 

not their causes.” The 20th-century records showed 

that lightning strikes were common in the Borderlands 

mountain region. In addition, historical records showed 

that Native Americans used fire on the landscape. These 

two types of ignitions left identical physical scars on 

trees. It was thought that one of the only ways to discern 

between the two types of ignitions was to look at any 

changes in fire frequency. In some cases this may have 

been possible. Exceptionally inflated fire frequencies in 

the 18th century in the Organ Mountains, New Mexico, 

compounded with historical records documenting the 

presence of Apaches near the collection sites, and the 

documentation of the use of fire on the landscape by 

these Apaches, suggested that the Native Americans may 

have had an influence on the 18th-century fire regime 

(Morino, personal communication). Swetnam and others 

(1989) suggest that high fire frequencies following 1851 

may be a result of Native Americans setting fire to the 

landscape. In other cases, variations in fire frequencies 

and evidence of fire ignitions by the Native Americans 

followed no clear pattern (Baisan and Swetnam 1990; 

Danzer n.d.).

Ignition sources for landscape fires was not a limiting 

factor in the Southwestern United States. In addition, an 

ecosystem generally has a particular capacity to burn, 

which, in the arid Southwest, is primarily determined by 
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 61

fuel amount and fuel moisture conditions. This meant that 

no matter how frequently the Native Americans ignited 

fires or how frequently lighting ignitions occurred, fuel 

had to be present and weather cooperative.

Post-1900 Influences on Fire Regimes

Hispanic and Euro-American settlers began to have 

an impact on the fire regimes of the Southwestern United 

States by the end of the 19th century when they brought 

large numbers of livestock to the area. The intense grazing 

of the animals in grass-covered areas altered the amounts 

of fuels available for burning. Logging practices also had 

an important impact on the composition of the forests, 

and the logging roads interrupted the connectivity of 

the forest and the fuels. Active suppression of fires by 

forest managers, which began in the first half of the 20th 

century, put an abrupt end to fire occurrence in many 

natural, forested areas in the United States.

Human impact on fire regimes has taken many forms. 

Native American use of fire over the landscape may have 

resulted in inflated fire frequencies. In contrast, grazing, 

logging, and fire suppression resulted in decreased fire 

frequencies.

Conclusions________________________

Our review of climate trends from the perspective of 

tree-ring data from the Borderlands region and the discussion of departures from regional patterns, coupled with 

fire history preserved in fire-scarred, living trees, snags, 

and logs, have been the basis of our fire-regime review. 

Information about ignition sources, fire perimeters, and 

intensity of fires was not directly recorded. We must look 

to the Principle of Uniformity and assume that processes 

that occurred in the past were similar to those that occur 

now. Current fire behavior shows us how fires may have 

behaved in the past. This extrapolation, combined with 

the fire interval information reconstructed in fire histories, 

allows us to paint a general picture of past fire regime 

characteristics. In the case of the Borderlands, multiple 

fire history reconstructions have given us information 

on the historic fire regime for several of the mountain 

ranges in the area. The individual studies show the 

importance of site-specific factors, but general patterns 

in fire regimes can also be found. Stability in the upperelevation pine and mixed-conifer forests in the mountain 

ranges surrounding the Borderlands was maintained by 

moderate- to low-intensity fires burning at moderate to 

high frequencies. Cultural influences have been shown 

to be both variable and site and time specific.
62 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 63

Introduction_______________________

Theoretical and topical orientations in current archaeology address the interaction between past human 

populations and their environment. These themes reflect 

ecological frameworks that were incorporated into the 

social sciences by the 1950s, as exemplified by the 

influential publication, Man’s Role in Changing the 

Face of the Earth (Thomas 1956). Cultural practices for 

actively manipulating targeted species and ultimately 

modifying vegetation structure have been highlighted 

in recent studies of foraging societies and have gained 

recognition as key processes in the transition from hunting and gathering to farming economies (for example, 

Hillman and Harris 1989; Price and Gebauer 1995; 

Smith 1992). From this background of such interests, 

archaeologists are increasingly involved in examining the relationships between prehistoric peoples and 

precontact vegetation on what are now public lands in 

the United States.

There is, of course, no unitary means of characterizing 

the manner and the magnitude of impact by preindustrial 

societies in North America or even in the Southwest. 

Natural vegetation dynamics over time are driven primarily by climate and secondarily by processes such 

as geomorphological change. However, these natural 

processes are more regular and subject to uniformitarian 

approaches than are the overlay of human interventions 

that affect them; no uniform reconstruction of human 

impact can be advanced without reference to economic 

orientation, population densities, or culture‐specific 

practice. To assess human influence on a precolumbian 

baseline, it is necessary not only to specify a vegetation 

class consistent with environmental variables, but also 

to specify the dimensions of indigenous population, 

subsistence, and settlement.

Human-Induced Fire in Historical 

Perspective________________________

The conviction that wildfire has played a decisive 

role in the evolution and maintenance of desert and 

plains grasslands and open forests in the American 

Southwest is an important component of range management philosophy and ecological thinking. According 

to this view, periodic and widespread grassland blazes 

in the past encouraged vigorous return of annuals but 

inhibited the survival of woody plants. Likewise, cyclical 

wildfires removed woodland understory so that forests 

of large trees were open and sprinkled with clearings. 

Changes in frequencies in the wake of fire suppression 

and overgrazing resulted in conditions that permitted 

the invasion of dense young trees, brush, and shrubs 

by the late 1800s.

Carl Sauer (1944, 1956) and Omer Stewart (1956) are 

among the most influential proponents of the hypothesis 

that the former broad, brush-free grasslands and mature, 

open forests of the New World originated with repeated 

fires set by Native Americans as much or more than 

from naturally occurring conflagrations. Stewart (1956: 

Suzanne K. Fish

Chapter 6.

Modeling Human Impacts to the 

Borderlands Environment From a 

Fire Ecology Perspective
64 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006

118) believed that the unrestricted burning of vegetation was a universal trait among “primitive” peoples. 

Grasslands were repeatedly subjected to fires used in 

Native American hunting activities (Sauer 1944: 554, 

1956; Stewart 1956: 129). Conversely, fire suppression 

is limited to contemporary societies (Sauer 1956: 55). 

Sauer and Stewart correlated this perceived universality 

of native burning with historic environmental change to 

arrive at the potent force shaping premodern grassland and 

forest landscapes. Some current environmental historians 

working in the Western United States have expanded 

this thesis to implicate burning by Native Americans in 

the overall development of North American ecosystem 

structure (Kay 1994; Pyne 1982).

Researchers in the Borderlands study area and adjacent 

regions (for example, Branscomb 1958; Cooper 1960; 

Humphrey 1958; and more recently Bahre 1985, 1991; 

Dobyns 1981: 27–44; Pyne 1982, 1984) have assembled an 

array of ethnographic, archival, and newspaper accounts of 

historic fire in general and anthropogenic fire in particular. 

Conrad Bahre (1985: 190, 1991: 124–142), reviewing 

local newspaper accounts of wildfires in grasslands of 

southeastern Arizona during the latter portion of the 19th

century, summarizes that: wildfires were much larger and 

more frequent than at present; the occurrence of these 

fires declined dramatically during the 1880s; cessation 

of large fires preceded the “brush invasion” of the 1890s; 

Native Americans often set wildfires; and suppression of 

fires was encouraged by Anglo settlers.

Natural Versus Cultural Magnitudes___

The scale and efficacy of naturally induced fire is 

a question that warrants serious consideration prior to 

retrodiction of human effects. If natural ignitions were 

plentiful and cultural suppression nonexistent, why 

would not the balance between accumulating fuels and 

recurrent fires be sufficiently close to preclude first order 

consequences of human initiations? Under conditions approaching such a balance, why would culturally generated 

fires transform or maintain vegetation types rather than 

affect relatively minor and local adjustments of vegetation 

potential? Proponents of Native American burning as a 

primary factor in the persistence of grasslands and open 

forests seldom confront this fundamental issue (but see 

Lewis 1973 for an exemplary analysis of the interplay 

between aboriginal burning and natural fire regimes in 

California).

The thoroughness and rapidity with which naturally ignited fires consume available fuels is particularly germane 

in assessing prehistoric human impacts on Borderlands 

ecosystems. Conrad Bahre (1991: 124) summarizes the 

impressive occurrence of lightning in the study area and 

vicinity. Nearby portions of Mogollon Rim country have 

among the highest incidences of lightning fires in the 

United States. Seventy-three percent of all fires since 

1959 in the Coronado National Forest have originated 

in this way. The Coronado Forest leads the Southwest in 

average acreage burned annually by lightning fires, despite 

a long history of fuel reduction through grazing. These 

high natural ignition rates bring the role of aboriginal 

burning into perspective as a residual mechanism in total 

fire ecology. Bahre (1991: 128) noted, “. . .given the high 

incidence of lightning-caused fires, reliably documented 

by modern data, the relative importance of fires set by 

Indians is probably moot.”

Although the exact nature of the relationship between 

natural fire and vegetation in the past cannot be easily 

resolved, it is possible to ask whether Borderlands 

trends attributed to historic human agency had earlier 

parallels. For example, Thomas Van Devender (1995: 

89–94) cites packrat midden evidence for increases of 

desert shrubs in southeastern Arizona grasslands about 

4,000, 3,000, and 1,000 years ago, in the absence of 

livestock or fire suppression programs. Although he 

attributes these prehistoric increases to climate, he 

acknowledges the unprecedented intensity and possible 

irreversibility of modern activities. In any case, there 

is wide concurrence on the two foremost causes for a 

decreased scope and frequency of fire by the latter part 

of the 19th century: the removal of ground cover and fine 

fuels through overgrazing and active fire-containment 

efforts (for example, Bahre 1985, 1995; McPherson 

1995; Pyne 1984; Van Devender 1995). Thus, it is clear 

that prehistoric human fire ecology should be viewed in 

the framework of a more vigorous natural fire regime 

than at present.

Fire Ecology of the Early 

Archaeological Sequence____________

There is a substantial body of information on Native 

American use of fire in the southern Southwest during 

the historic era (see summaries in Bahre 1985; Dobyns 

1981). But for the prehistoric era, unfortunately, direct 

evidence pertaining to the fire practices of Borderlands 

inhabitants is limited, and models of this behavior 

rely strongly on ethnographic accounts. Analogs must 

be judiciously selected for best fit with the demographic and economic profiles of specific groups of prehistoric peoples. No single, generalized model of human 
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 65

fire ecology can adequately encompass the demographic 

and economic variability in archaeological sequences.

Little is known about Paleoindian hunters of the study 

area beyond the existence of kill and butchering sites 

for large, extinct game such as mammoth. Paleoindian 

residence and mobility strategies are not well known, nor 

are other aspects of subsistence practices. Packrat middens 

in uplands suggest that grasslands emerged from more 

arboreal vegetation types about 8,500 years ago (Van 

Devender 1995: 89), but pollen diagrams associated with 

still earlier Paleoindian kill sites conform to grassland patterns (Mehringer and Haynes 1965: 22; Martin 1963a,b). 

The use of fire drives for game is plausible but assessing 

their overall effect is highly speculative.

Forms and distributions of desert grassland and scrub 

resembling those of the present were in place by approximately 4,000 years ago (Van Devender 1995: 89). 

With the demise of large Pleistocene fauna, subsistence 

practices shifted to a focus on diversesmaller animals and, 

as suggested by grinding stones and other implements in 

artifact assemblages, varied plant resources. Although we 

know little about the lifestyles of the Archaic peoples who 

succeeded Paleoindian hunters, the few known structures 

from the latter centuries before agriculture imply intervals 

of relatively prolonged occupation in some locales (for 

example, O’Laughlin 1980).

In a cross-cultural survey of foraging societies, 

Lawrence Keeley (1995) found a correlation between 

use of fire for landscape management, dietary reliance on 

seeds and nuts, intensive manipulation of wild plants, and 

decreasing mobility. Indeed, this combination of attributes 

fits those historic cultures of the Western United States for 

whom the most systematic and complex burning practices 

have been recorded, such as the Shoshone and Paiute 

of the Great Basin (Steward 1938; Stewart 1939) and a 

variety of groups in California (Bean and Saubel 1972; 

Lewis 1973). With longer residence in single locations, 

management efforts are both increasingly practicable and 

necessary to derive food supplies from circumscribed territories. Archaic foragers closely predating the transition 

to farming may well have been the premier landscape 

burners of Borderlands prehistory.

In the Tucson Basin and on its eastern borders, the 

threshold of agriculture dates back at least to 1,000 B.C. 

and probably centuries earlier (B. Huckell 1996; Mabry 

1996; S. Fish and others 1990). Corn pollen recovered 

by Owen Davis (2001: 408) from the Animas Creek 

Cienega near the Gray Ranch Headquarters, in a level 

dated earlier than 3000 B.P., suggests that the appearance 

of farming was generally synchronous in the Borderlands. 

Late Archaic subsistence studies near Tucson show even 

the earliest cultivators possessed a full complement of 

aboriginal food crops, and corn remains are as common in 

their pithouse villages as in later agricultural settlements 

(L. Huckell 1996, n.d.).

Fire Ecology of the Late Prehistoric 

Archaeological Sequence____________

Information is most complete for later prehistoric sites 

in the Borderlands. Data on the distribution of residential 

sites, including the largest occupations of all times, provide the basis for modeling cultural dimensions of fire 

ecology in the last centuries before Old World intrusion, 

from about A.D. 1250 to 1450. Because archaeologists 

have undertaken little systematic inventory or excavation, reconstruction of human fire ecology during this era 

draws upon more numerous and refined studies to the 

west and north in southern Arizona, particularly studies 

of the Hohokam. Ethnographic analogs will similarly 

emphasize agricultural groups in those sectors.

Disjuncture with Apache Practices

It is useful to contrast the cultural contexts of the use of 

fire before and after Old World contacts in the Borderlands. 

Both proponents and discounters of aboriginal burning as 

a primary force invoke accounts of Apaches and similar 

groups from initial Spanish encounters to the late 19th 

century. It is improbable that these observations are valid 

reflections of precontact times. In addition to the tenuous cultural continuity of the Apache with prehistoric 

agriculturalists, their lifestyles were shaped by factors 

unique to historic.

Throughout the periods of Spanish, Mexican, and 

United States hegemony, the Apache were simultaneously in conflict and economically intertwined with these 

dominant societies and other Native American groups. 

Mobility was heightened by ongoing hostilities, capabilities for animal transport, and heavy economic involvement 

in raiding and trading. Although Apaches gathered plant 

resources and sometimes cultivated for subsistence needs, 

their opportunities for extended residence and intensive 

forms of land use often were limited. Furthermore, some 

Apache had more than a passing involvement with livestock. For example, Dobyns (1981: 24) cites a description 

of large numbers of Apache livestock along Pinal Creek 

by 1830. Livestock obtained in perpetual raiding also 

had to be temporarily sustained, even if later disposed 

of through trade.
66 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006

Apache patterns of land use, including the application of fire, diverges from that of relatively intensive or 

sedentary foragers and, presumably, that of from late 

prehistoric agriculturalists. Mobile (and to some extent 

unpredictable) Apache lifestyles, in conjunction with low 

population size, would hold few incentives for regular, 

intensive, and fine-tuned manipulations of the environment. Relocation was a ready option and sometimes an 

urgent necessity. Not surprisingly, reports of Apache 

burning in historic records, though probably inflated by 

automatic attribution, are repeatedly linked with conflict 

(Bahre 1985; Dobyns 1981), and fire chronologies derived 

from Borderlands tree-ring studies suggest a correlation 

between increased frequencies and intervals of heightened 

warfare (Kaib and others 1996).

Late Prehistoric Settlement Patterns

Borderlands settlement patterns after A.D. 1200 are 

characterized by adobe structures at larger residential 

sites, with a range from 50 to perhaps several hundred 

rooms. All of these are pueblo-style with contiguous 

rooms. Compounds, consisting of more dispersed sets of 

rooms surrounded by a wall, were constructed at moderate-sized sites near the western boundary of the study 

area; room numbers are more difficult to estimate with 

this type of architecture. Locations of the large settlements correspond to better situations for irrigated and 

floodwater farming along the larger mid-valley drainages 

and along mountain edges where tributaries with large 

upland watersheds emerge (fig. 3.5). The importance of 

agriculture is inferred from these hydrological settings, 

and corn remains have been recovered in each of four 

substantial excavations at these sites (Kidder and others 

1949; McCluney 1965a, 1965b) and in a number of dry 

caves (Lambert and Ambler 1961).

Although small residential settlements and other site 

types are numerous throughout the study area, occurrences 

are so spottily reported that their relationship to the larger 

sites cannot be documented in more comprehensive 

patterns. The presence of probable Casas Grandes-style 

ballcourts at four large sites in the study area and at three 

near its edges suggests some form of multi-site community 

organization similar to that in the Hohokam area (S. Fish 

and Fish 1994) and other parts of the Southwest (Adler 

1996; P. Fish and Fish 1994). Communities in this sense 

are sets of closely interrelated outlying settlements that 

share a relatively large center with communal public 

architecture such as a ballcourt, platform mound, or big 

house. The roughly regular spacing of large Borderland 

sites (fig. 3.9) also resembles the spacing of centers in 

other community distributions (P. Fish and Fish 1994; 

S. Fish 1996)

A Zonal Model of Fire Use___________

Just as differing economic orientations have differing 

implications for the use of fire as a management tool, 

its use can also vary among differing locations within 

a single orientation. We will use the zonal character of 

prehistoric community territory as the principal point 

of reference in modeling this variability. Community 

boundaries encompass the primary sustaining area for 

the entire set of interrelated member settlements. Among 

the neighboring Hohokam, community territories exhibit 

an internal zonal arrangement corresponding to varied 

topographic opportunities for agriculture and the procurement of wild resources (Crown 1987b; Fish and others 

1992; Masse 1991).

Zones of Intensive Cultivation

Communities usually include a productive core of 

hydrologically favored agricultural land. Such a core in 

the study area would consist of land irrigated from primary 

or large secondary drainages by small networks of canals. 

At the scale of Borderland watercourses, formal irrigation 

would intergrade with extensive floodwater systems, 

in which long ditches serve a series of fields (compare 

Doolittle 1984; Nabhan 1986; Withers 1973).

Within the radius of intensively cultivated land, 

uncontrolled fire would have posed a threat. Nearby 

village structures with highly flammable roofs contained 

household possessions and, more important, internal or 

adjacent facilities with stored food. During the growing 

season, crops would be threatened in fields. Throughout 

the year, however, fire might damage other vegetation 

elements of intensively farmed locales. As in Pima agriculture (Rea 1981, 1983), field edges and hedgerows may 

have consisted of woody plants and herbaceous species 

that were selectively spared in clearing and of herbaceous 

plants that, together, furnished gatherable resources and 

firewood and harbored a concentrated supply of small 

game. Species such as mesquite grew along outer edges 

of canals. A mesic flora also lined canal banks, extending 

riparian resources into the zone of cultivation. In adjacent 

northern Sonora, traditional farmers still plant “living 

fencerows” of cottonwood and willow to stabilize field 

edges on floodplains and to safely deflect nutrient-rich 

flood flows over fields (Sheridan and Nabhan 1978).

Uses of fire in intensively farmed zones are clearly 

documented for aboriginal and traditional farmers of the 

southern Southwest. Piled brush was sometimes burned 
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 67

in the initial clearing of fields (Castetter and Bell 1942: 

125) and possibly to remove weedy growth in subsequent 

plantings. Canal channels were similarly cleaned at times. 

Burning to clear water delivery systems may have been 

extended to the dense growth of cienegas and drainage 

bottoms in locations where canals and ditches headed; 

an additional goal might have been to enhance the productivity of nonwoody riparian resources (Nabhan and 

others 1983; Rea and others 1983). Such practices could 

account for the charcoal of riparian species recovered 

from Borderland cienegas in levels predating the late 19th 

century (Davis n.d.). In all of these cases, unrestrained 

fires would have been destructive to residential and 

agricultural environs.

Table 4.5 gives estimates for amounts of irrigated 

land needed to supply projected populations at seven of 

the better-recorded large Borderlands sites. Quantities 

are based on historic Piman farming for which at least 

2.5 persons could be supported by 1 ha (2.5 acres) of 

irrigated land (Castetter and Bell 1942: 54). Although 

irrigable land is intermittently distributed along adjacent 

streams for all but one of these sites, in no case does it 

satisfy even half of the projected acreage. This lack of 

congruence suggests a major role for alternative methods 

of agricultural production and gathering.

Areas of Runoff Cultivation

Somewhat removed from well-watered community 

sectors, more marginal plantings likely were situated on 

ephemeral tributaries. Such secondary floodwater plots 

likely were interspersed among more extensive fields 

watered solely by the concentration of surface runoff. 

Impressive arrays of runoff devices are widespread in 

portions of southern Arizona and northern Chihuahua surrounding the Borderlands. For example, in three Hohokam 

communities of the Tucson Basin, simple cobble devices 

called rockpiles covered between 550 and 600 ha (1,359 

and 1,483 acres). In the two reliably bounded examples of 

these large territorial units (136 and 146 km2; 53 and 56 

square miles), such fields constituted about 2 percent of 

community land (S. Fish and Fish 1994). Terraces, linear 

borders, and checkdams were prominent stone features of 

the Casas Grandes region of Chihuahua (Di Peso 1984; 

Whalen and Minnis 2001: 71–75), and miles of large 

stone grids covered the upper terraces of the Gila River 

near present-day Safford, Arizona (Masse 1991).

Historically, aboriginal and traditional farmers most 

commonly constructed runoff diversion devices of earth 

and brush. Preserved stone features, then, may represent 

a minimum indication of prehistoric use. The lack of 

reports of runoff features in the Borderlands may reflect 

the rudimentary level of inventory or a predominance of 

earth and brush materials.

If present, as seems likely, zones of runoff farming 

defined further circumscription of anthropogenic fire. 

Agave has been documented as a principal cultigen, and 

cacti have been suggested for many Hohokam runoff 

complexes (Fish and Nabhan 1991). Such droughtadapted plantings are strong probabilities in the arid 

Borderlands as well. These are perennial crops, leaving 

no off-season in which burning of weeds could be freely 

implemented. Furthermore, succulents tend to be among 

the least fire tolerant of desert plants (Cave and Patten 

1984; McLaughlin and Bowers 1982; McPherson 1995: 

137–140).

Variable Radii of Gathering

The disturbed environs of prehistoric cultivation provided secondary resources in the form of weedy plants 

(Fish and Nabhan 1991). Typically, these were annuals that 

matured rapidly and produced edible greens and abundant 

seeds. Intensive gatherers burned plots to increase the 

production of such species, but broad applications of fire 

by agriculturalists would have been relegated to zones 

beyond residences and both intensively and extensively 

cultivated land. The lower needs of farmers than foragers 

for weedy harvests may have been largely satisfied from 

field margins and fallow land.

Labor expended in agriculture can be seen as a counterbalance to investments in wild plant manipulation near 

and beyond community boundaries. It is doubtful, for 

instance, that irrigation and floodwater farmers would 

have had sufficient time or incentive to routinely burn 

meadows in high elevation forests, despite potential 

enhancement of edible species. The most intensive 

manipulations of wild plants by agriculturalists might 

be expected near the margins of cultivation rather than 

at greater distances. Moreover, wild resources respond 

variably to fire. Grasses and other seed bearing annuals 

are more abundant after burning, while cacti providing 

fruit are damaged.

Strategies for Hunting

Vegetation effects at the broadest scale are often linked 

to hunting (for example, Kay 1994; Stewart 1956). Fire was 

widely employed for this purpose among cultural groups 

of the southern Southwest and northern Mexico (Dobyns 

1981: 42). Hunters lit fires to flush out their prey, to direct 

or contain the flight of animals, and to promote abundant, 

palatable fodder. Mounted hunters in postcontact times 

could rapidly pursue fleeing game; prehistoric hunters 
68 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006

on foot had more compelling motivation to carefully 

position fires to constrain the path of flight. Practices 

designed to control both fire and animals are illustrated 

by the description cited by Dobyns (1981: 43) of Yaqui 

setting a fire in a circle when there was no wind so that it 

burned toward the center. Hunters waited at the perimeter 

for game escaping outward. Despite such means for exerting control, fire drives among the Pima were carried out 

in areas more distant from villages and fields than other 

forms of communal hunting (Rea 1979: 114–115).

Burning at a landscape scale, such as throughout 

grasslands on Borderlands valley floors, is conceivable as 

a strategy to improve the carrying capacity for herbivores 

(compare Dobyns 1981: 39). In light of the already high 

incidence of natural fires to consume built-up fuels, such 

programmatic burning would have required persistent 

effort, and would have threatened the predominantly 

lower valley villages and fields. Detailed ethnographic 

accounts of burning for forage improvement, however, 

often describe small-scale, areally specific goals and 

events. Restricted burning, such as near a water source 

or in a forest clearing, offers the distinct advantage of 

attracting and concentrating game in a precise, predictable location.

Radii of Fuel Demands

During prolonged occupation of large sites, residents 

continually needed domestic fuel. Cleared land and culturally modified vegetation in the vicinity of settlements 

lengthened radii of firewood supply. Lower elevation 

woodlands of adjacent mountains must have been important sources. Fred Plog (1992) estimated 2.7 cords of 

firewood per capita annually for prehistoric populations 

of the Mogollon Rim. Adjusted downward to two cords 

for the somewhat milder Borderlands climate, areas of 

sustainable yield in low-density Emory oak woodland 

(Touchon 1988) range from 17 to 60 km2 (6.5 to 23 

square miles) for projected village populations in table 

6.1. Repetitive harvesting of deadwood may have affected 

natural fire frequencies in areas of heavy fuel gathering, 

and it seems probable that intentional burning would have 

been avoided to conserve the nearest supplies.

Fire Ecology of Anthropogenic 

Landscapes________________________

Multiple lines of evidence suggest that the applications 

and motivations for fire use were culturally and spatially 

complex for late prehistoric Borderlands agriculturalists. 

The productive potential of small-scale irrigation and 

intensive floodwater techniques is modest when compared 

to more hydrologically favored locales in other parts of 

the southern Southwest. In addition to runoff cultivation of marginal land, manipulations of vegetation to 

increase the returns of hunting and gathering are likely 

to have included the same uses of fire. It seems doubtful, 

however, that comprehensive burning was instituted at a 

landscape scale, for reasons advanced in the foregoing 

discussion.

The greatest variety of resources can be obtained from 

heterogeneous rather than homogenous landscapes, with 

patches of mature vegetation and other areas in multiple 

stages of fire succession. Mobile populations could attain 

resource variety by periodically moving from place to 

place, an option not equally viable for committed farmers. Particularly for agriculturalists, a vegetation mosaic 

would have been as valuable for gathering plants as for 

Table 6.1. Population and land-use characteristics for selected large, late prehistoric pueblos in the Malpai Borderlands study 

area.

Site No. Site name No. of roomsa Estimated populationb Hectares of farmlandc Cords of fuelwoodd

LA 1369 Pendleton 125 125 50 250

LA 4980 Box Canyon 175 175 70 350

LA 1823 Joyce Well 200 200 80 400

LA31050 Culberson 225 225 90 550

LA54033 Double Adobe 200 200 80 400

LA54034 Cloverdale Park 75 75 30 150

LA54038 Timberlake 200+ 200 80 400

a

Number of rooms is based on National Register Nomination forms for the Animas District.

b

Estimated population is derived from William Longacre’s (1970) room-to-person ratio.

c

Hectares of irrigated land are estimated using Castetter and Bell’s (1942:54) ratio of persons to farmland among the Gila River Pima.

d

Estimates of cords of fuelwood are those of Spoerl and Ravesloot (1994). Estimates for Animas inhabitants were reduced by 25 percent because 

of milder climate.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 69

hunting, to ensure a variety of wildlife and predictable 

localization of game.

High incidences of lightning in the Borderlands guaranteed access to resources encouraged by fire succession. 

Cultural practices could accelerate vegetation response 

by introducing fire in seasons of natural ignition and by 

increasing periodicities to the extent that fuel buildups 

allowed (Lewis 1973; McPherson 1995). Nevertheless, 

fires of controlled extent were the route to achieving 

vegetation mosaics more diversified and resource-rich 

than natural zones.
70 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 71

Borderlands Archaeological Context___

Archaeological cultures of the Malpai Borderlands 

study area are intermediate between the homelands of 

several better defined and relatively well-studied prehispanic manifestations. To the northwest, the Hohokam 

represent a persistent cultural expression throughout 

ceramic times. To the north and northeast, before A.D. 

1200, the Mimbres culture created dominant ceramic 

styles. Thereafter, the Salado and Casas Grandes spheres to 

the north and south respectively represent archaeological 

cultures in a broadly Mogollon tradition.

Located between some of the more dramatic developments in Southwest prehistory, the Malpai Borderlands 

have played a key role in regional synthesis and the 

development of interpretive constructs about frontiers 

(De Atley 1980), interaction spheres (Douglas 1995; P. 

Fish and Fish 1999; Skibo and others 2002), political 

dominance (Di Peso 1974; Wilcox 1995), and short-term 

sedentism with cycles of abandonment and migration 

(Nelson and Anyon 1996; Nelson and LeBlanc 1986). 

These regional models and related constructs necessarily 

incorporate fragmentary data from the Borderlands and 

reflect perspectives on better understood cultural systems 

in other regional sectors.

Local typological, chronological, and cultural sequences are poorly developed. Instead, archaeologists 

typically have projected established schemes from 

adjacent culture areas. Malpai Borderlands research 

invariably has been designed to address Casas Grandes, 

Mimbres, or Salado issues; there has never been a sustained, intensive investigative focus on locally generated 

problems. Because the study area has not had significant 

urban or agricultural development with direct Federal 

and State involvement, cultural resource management 

investigations have been limited to a few surveys. 

High-quality, large-scale excavations are lacking. As a 

result, any comprehensive attempt to understand past 

human-land relationships must be grounded in long-term 

interdisciplinary research that initially focuses on basic 

data collection.

Phase 1: Spanish and Mexican Archival 

Study_____________________________

This phase of research has been initiated. Thomas 

Sheridan and Diana Hadley have been contracted to review 

original Spanish and Mexican archives for ecological 

and culture history information pertinent to the Malpai 

Borderlands. Colonial and Mexican period archives are 

believed to contain information regarding phenomena 

such as drought, flooding, human use of fire, Apache 

land use, and early ranching and farming activities. A 

brief overview of their work (Hadley and others 1999) 

has been published and a complete report should be 

available in the near future.

Phase 2: Malpai Borderlands 

Conference/Workshop_______________

One aspect of the second phase of research has also 

been completed. A short conference (2 to 3 days) was 

called to acquaint all parties conducting research in the 

Paul R. Fish

Suzanne K. Fish

Chapter 7.

An Archaeological Research Design 

for the Malpai Borderlands
72 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006

Malpai Borderlands with the work of others. A wide range 

of natural and social scientists, including archaeologists 

and historians, reported on investigations conducted 

in conjunction with the Gray Ranch and governmental 

agencies, and on independent research interests (Gottfried 

and others 1999). A second week-long workshop or 

conference should be called once Malpai Borderlands 

archaeological investigations are resumed and should 

include scholars interested in dendrochronological studies, palynology, a wide range of studies on the existing 

environment, packrat midden analyses, and the Gray 

Ranch mapping project.

This workshop should initiate an interdisciplinary 

examination of prehistoric and historic environmental 

change in the Borderlands and should draft a proposal 

for support of research to one of several potential funding 

agencies. For example, the broad range of well-qualified 

researchers involved in Borderlands investigations could 

develop a compelling proposal to any number of the 

National Science Foundation competitions, particularly 

those pertaining to global climate change. A small group 

of six to 10 principal investigators could write such a 

proposal during the final 3 days of the conference in this 

workshop format.

Phase 3: Survey of Existing Artifact and 

Field Record Collections_____________

An initial stage should consist of a concentrated effort to obtain valuable knowledge about the study area 

residing in the collections and recollections of amateurs. 

Extensive Arizona experience suggests that this effort 

is particularly crucial for compiling information on 

Paleoindian through Middle Archaic as well as historic 

time periods. A reference collection and graphics could 

be used to aid the recollection and identification of stylistically diagnostic artifacts. Amateurs could provide 

locations of features such as small springs and caves, in 

addition to sites. Field visits in the company of amateurs 

will be an important part of this phase. In this regard, 

the systematic and accurately located collections by Jeff 

Shauger of the Gray Ranch are particularly important 

and comprehensive.

A systematic review of existing museum collections 

from excavated archaeological sites in and near the 

Borderlands study area should be a secondary thrust of 

phase 3 investigations. It is likely that Museum of New 

Mexico and School for American Research collections 

from McCluney’s (1965a, 1965b) and Lambert and 

Ambler’s (1961) excavations, and Harvard’s Peabody 

Museum collections from Kidder and others (1949) will 

contain material valuable for dating and ecological study. 

It is also possible that there are collections at the Maxwell 

Museum and Museum of New Mexico which are poorly 

documented in the literature, such as materials from the 

University of New Mexico’s expedition to the Culberson 

Ruin in the 1930s (Osborne and Hayes 1938)

Phase 4: Tree-Ring Studies Pertaining to 

Archaeology_______________________

Detailed recommendations from both the Fire Ecology 

and Archaeology Sections at the University of Arizona 

Tree Ring Laboratory were presented as appendices to 

the overview manuscript (Baisan and others 1997; Dean 

1997). Specific projects include: (1) resample tree-ring 

sites in the Pinaleno Mountains where the longest 

chronology for the region has recently been developed; 

(2) extend chronologies that are currently limited to the 

mid-15th century from the Animas Mountains and Sierra 

Ajos Mountains; and (3) conduct an in-depth search of 

archival and historical documents that would augment 

ecological models proposed from tree-ring studies. These 

investigations will enhance our understanding of regional 

prehistory through effective integration of archaeological 

information and paleoecological data. Because modest 

costs are anticipated, we recommend giving these studies 

high priority. They should be undertaken prior to archaeological studies beyond the reconnaissance level.

Phase 5: Geoarchaeological 

Assessment________________________

A geoarchaeologist should be employed to delineate 

geomorphic surfaces of relatively uniform age and to 

identify processes that are likely to obscure surface 

indications of archaeological remains. In cases of 

recognized burial, depths to materials of particular age 

should be approximated. The geoarchaeologist would 

also construct a geological perspective on environmental 

history to evaluate settlement trends and their effects on 

the environment. Likely locations to obtain environmental 

sequences such as packrat middens and pollen cores 

should be identified. A hydrological assessment should 

include agricultural potential of drainages and age of 

spring locations.

Phase 6: Reconnaissance Survey______

A reconnaissance level survey should be designed to 

obtain particular types of land use and cultural information. Existing aerial photographs for the Borderlands 
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 73

study area should be assembled and examined for their 

potential in revealing information on prehistoric land use, 

particularly modifications to the landscape resulting from 

past agriculture. Major village sites should be revisited 

with an eye toward identifying additional ballcourts.

Phase 7: Systematic Survey___________

A broad-scale, systematic survey should be conducted, 

based on prior stratification of the study area according 

to naturally and culturally relevant variables. Preliminary 

observation of settlement pattern suggests that concentrated ceramic era settlements on basin floors and mountain 

flanks should be subjected to large block or full-coverage 

examination. Mid-basin and upper elevation areas might 

be tied into these blocks through survey transects.

To efficiently sample preceramic and other less 

sedentary occupations including many of the historic 

period, survey blocks and transects may be designed 

around springs, playas and their associated high stand 

lakes, and other attractive features on the landscape. All 

exposed drainage profiles should be carefully examined, 

in addition to surface observations. In view of hierarchical tendencies in the late ceramic settlement patterns, 

block surveys should also be designed around large sites 

in areas of dense settlement and around focal villages 

containing ballcourts.

Phase 8: Studies in Holocene 

Environmental Change______________

Packrat Midden Studies

Packrat midden studies should be undertaken within the 

study area. Pollen and plant macrofossil studies of packrat 

middens have shown these deposits to be highly sensitive 

barometers of local environment. Reconnaissance during 

the present study confirms that numerous, well-preserved 

middens exist in grassland and higher elevation environments at a variety of locations in the study area. Current 

regional packrat studies are from higher elevation woodland environments, rather than valley floors. Middens 

located in present-day grasslands should be particularly 

valuable in testing previous models of post-Pleistocene 

invasions of shrubby plants into these lower elevation 

zones (Van Devender 1990).

Palynology

Pollen profiles at the Gray Ranch cienega and at 

cienegas adjacent to the study area (Davis n.d.) could be 

expanded to include other cienega or spring sequences. 

Replication of sequences will provide insights into both 

changing climate and prehistoric human practices involving water and vegetation near the cienegas.

Both the palynological and packrat midden studies 

must be accompanied by large numbers of radiocarbon 

dates for chronological control. These dates, combined 

with specialized botanical studies, make such investigations expensive. Therefore, this research should follow 

the geoarchaeological assessments and the archaeological surveys, during which deposits for sampling can be 

identified. It may also be possible to better relate this 

environmental research to locations selected for detailed 

archaeological study at a later phase of investigation.

Phase 9: Problem-Oriented 

Excavations________________________

Data for solving particular problems pertaining to 

chronology, subsistence, and human-induced environmental change ultimately must come from excavation 

of archaeological deposits.

Geomorphological Studies Related to 

Hydrology

Such studies include focused trenching to retrieve the 

environmental and culture histories of cienegas, streams, 

and playas. Near cienegas, geological histories, and 

terrestrial sequences of botanical samples to match core 

records could be obtained; trenches might also reveal 

damming or ditching for agricultural purposes. History 

and stratigraphy could also be explored in this manner for 

playas, important long-term resource zones in regional 

prehistory. The history of Borderland drainages is also 

an important element in understanding irrigation and 

floodwater farming.

Extractive Sites

Survey and excavation can be designed to characterize 

hunting and gathering locations through time. Detailed 

study will be needed to pinpoint the date of use, duration 

of use, and resources obtained. Densities of extractive 

sites by zones such as grassland, high elevation forest, 

and playa margins provide evidence for magnitudes of 

resource use and human presence.

Agricultural Sites

Study of these sites will include intensive survey and 

mapping to understand agricultural technology and productivity, dates of use, associated tool assemblages, and 
74 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006

field layout, including the location of ancillary facilities 

such as canals, ditches, roasting pits, and field houses. 

Excavations should target both constructed features 

and field sediments to retrieve botanical samples for 

reconstructing crop variety, weedy flora, and evidence 

for specific practices such as burning.

Residential Sites

Excavations at residential sites can be designed to 

recover dendrochronological specimens for dating and 

climatic reconstruction. Modern analog studies will be 

necessary to support this program. Additionally, construction timber identifications will indicate source and 

intensity of such wood use. Most Borderlands settlements 

fall in lower elevations that do not contain tree species 

suitable for tree-ring dating but are adjacent to higher 

mountain zones where such trees exist. Recent research 

in other desert locations such as the Tucson Basin (Dean 

and others 1996) and Casas Grandes (Dean and Ravesloot 

1993) demonstrate the importance of timbers of high 

elevation species such as ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, and 

white fir in the construction of adobe buildings. Regular 

procurement of these species in construction suggests currently untapped potential for dendrochronological study 

in many desert locations, including the Borderlands.

Flotation and pollen samples are needed to indicate 

subsistence mixes of wild and later cultivated resources 

and the zonal emphasis and intensity of plant exploitation. 

These studies should also inform on natural environment, 

environmental change, and specifically human modifications of the environment. Weedy and successional floras 

are particularly relevant in these regards. Charcoal from 

fuel use is another way to monitor wood consumption 

and such issues as source areas and depletion.

Systematically recovered faunal samples are also 

critical to an evaluation of the zonal sources and relative 

mixes of animal resources. These studies may also inform 

on environmental change and resource pressures, as in 

the changes in lagomorph (jackrabbit, cottontail) species 

and reduction of artiodactyls (deer, antelope, and so forth) 

during extended occupations. Hunting patterns may be 

one of the better ways to monitor resource acquisition 

at a distance from residential sites, particularly at higher 

elevations.

Settlement Pattern Studies

Settlement pattern studies are the means for integrating 

all of the foregoing kinds of data. Occupational densities 

and relationships among site locations and resources 

are needed to evaluate human impacts through time. In 

particular, it is important to assess the contemporaneity 

and degree of relatedness of sites in areas of clustered 

settlement to assess population size and environmental 

pressures. It is important, therefore, to investigate 

hierarchical relationships among sites and evidence 

for territorial integration. Based on detailed settlement 

pattern studies, including all of the foregoing site-level 

information, simulations can be made of land-use patterns, resource consumption, and environmental impacts 

for various periods of study area prehistory.

Recommendations for Priority Excavation

Caves or rockshelters with high potential for long 

sequences or chronologically critical intervals should be 

targeted. There is a need for information from stratified 

deposits for all segments of the prehistoric sequence, and 

these can be acquired as efficiently in few other ways. 

Existing information from cave localities was not acquired 

using rigorous techniques, and biological and chronological information was not previously emphasized.

Early villages are virtually unknown from Borderlands 

investigations. Sites beginning with villages of Late 

Archaic farmers, if located, and a variety of pre-Casas 

Grandes settlements in both the eastern and western 

sectors should be tested before selections are made for 

more detailed excavation.

Later ceramic settlements with compound architecture 

in the western study area should be emphasized. These 

sites have been neglected more than those with closer 

stylistic ties to Casas Grandes. At present, it is difficult 

to predict architectural layout or even to roughly estimate 

room numbers. Initial efforts should emphasize efficient 

outlining of walls as well as intensive excavations.

Locations of consistent, long-term attraction should 

be targeted to convincingly monitor environmental 

impacts. Holding location constant, biological materials from sequential occupations would offer insights 

into changing magnitudes and kinds of modification. At 

Slaughter Ranch, for instance, Archaic, early ceramic, 

and late ceramic occupations could be contrasted with the 

historic Colonial and territorial archaeology of the locale. 

Evidence for farming technologies during each of these 

intervals could be examined concurrently. Consequences 

of the transition from prehistoric to early historic land 

use would be of particular interest. In the eastern portion 

of the study area, another locale with chronologically 

varied prehistoric occupation might be in the vicinity of 

the cienega at Maddox Ranch.
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Stacy, V.K. Pheriba. 1974. Survey of the San Bernardino Ranch, 

Douglas, Arizona. Manuscript on file at: Arizona State 

Museum Library, University of Arizona, Tucson.
88 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006

Database Key______________________

The database includes modified components of the 

Arizona State Museum Site Recording System (Arizona 

State Museum 1993) and the New Mexico NMCRIS User’s 

Guide (State of New Mexico 1993). When sites contain 

more than one recorded component, these instances were 

entered separately with the result that many sites have 

multiple entries. Information for this database originated 

in several sources, including the Arizona State Museum, 

Museum of New Mexico, USDA Forest Service, and USDI 

Bureau of Land Management. Approximately 5 percent 

of the identified components are recorded on the basis of 

excavation data, and the remainder are described solely 

by surface evidence. The key is organized by columns 

in order of occurrence in the database.

Column A—Site Designation: An institutional or research 

number is used as a primary designation for identification of the site. LA numbers are used for New Mexico 

sites and Arizona State Museum site numbers for 

Arizona sites. Other designations (for example, Gila 

Pueblo, Fitting, Myers) are used only when these are 

not available. See appendix C for a concordance of 

site names.

Column B—Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) 

Easting: All UTM values are in Zone 12. In cases 

with conflicting UTM locations, placement was on 

a case-by-case basis rather than always adhering to 

one data source.

Column C—UTM Northing: See column B.

Column D—Elevation: All elevations are recorded as 

meters above sea level. 

Column E—Ownership: Site ownership is coded using 

the following key:

(0) Unknown

(1) Private

(2) Private and Arizona State Trust Lands

(3) Municipal

(4) Arizona State Trust Lands and Arizona 

Department of Transportation

(5) Arizona Department of Transportation

(6) San Bernardino Land Grant (to the State of 

Arizona)

(7) Arizona State Trust Lands 

(8) New Mexico State Trust Lands

(9) Bureau of Land Management

(10) United States Forest Service

(11) United States Fish and Wildlife Service

(12) Other

(13) New Mexico State Highway and Transportation 

Department

Column F—Culture: Culture names (archaeological periods) are assigned following appendix 5 in the NMCRIS 

key. Consecutive numbers were given to entries in that 

appendix. Additions are “Unknown Ceramic” (65) and 

“Generic Mogollon” (66). There are no deletions. This 

column also provides age ranges for sites following 

those specified in the NMCRIS key. 

Column G—Phase: Site information occasionally allows 

more specific temporal placement, usually in terms of 

conventionally recognized phases. Projectile points 

and more often diagnostic ceramics are used for phase 

placement for those sites known only through surface 

survey. Some historic sites are identified following 

NMCRIS appendix 5 terminology and specifications. 

A.C. MacWilliams

Appendix A.

Borderlands Site Database
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 89

The following alphabetically arranged list is used to 

designate phases:

(0) Not specified

(1) Anglo

(2) Animas

(3) Apache

(4) Black Mountain

(5) Colonial

(6) Jornada

(7) Mimbres

(8) Pinto

(9) Recent

(10) Salado

(11) San Luis

(12) San Pedro

(13) San Simon

(14) State

(15) U.S. Territory

Column H—Site Area: Site area is given in m2. A value 

of “0” indicates unknown site dimensions and area. 

NMCRIS site area values often conflict with estimated 

site areas from other information sources. As the 

NMCRIS areas are categorical, these are used only 

when alternatives are not available. When area is not 

provided by a recorder, it has been calculated from 

field maps, if available. 

Column I—Site Use: Site use follows the Arizona State 

Museum site file list of 21 possible uses. In that system 

“1” specifies unknown use, whereas “0” is used here. 

Other values are not adjusted down one integer; “1” is 

not a possible value for site use in this database. Sites 

are specified as habitation sites (19) only if habitation 

(residential) features such as pithouses or roomblocks 

are recorded at the site. This is an obvious biasing 

factor in the identification of residential sites prior to 

the late prehistoric times.

Column J—Surface/Excavation/Vertical Surface: This 

category also follows the Arizona State Museum 

convention. Sites recorded only with surficial data are 

designated “1,” excavated sites “2,” vertical surfaces 

such as cliffs or bluffs “3,” and wholly or partially 

excavated sites set in vertical surfaces “4.” 

Column K—Flaked Stone: A value of “0” means that 

no flaked stone (debitage, cores, tools) was recorded. 

Sites with flaked stone are coded as “1.”

Column L—Ceramics: A value of “0” means no 

ceramics were recorded. Sites with ceramics are coded 

as “1.”

Column M—Groundstone: A value of “0” means no 

groundstone was recorded. Sites with groundstone 

are coded as “1.”

Column N—Dwellings: Features that are generally 

identified as dwellings are identified in this column 

using values from the Arizona State Museum Keyword 

List.

Column O—Assorted Rock Features: A variety of rock 

features ranging from rockpiles and bedrock mortars 

to petroglyphs are identified in this column using 

values from the Arizona State Museum Feature Names 

Keyword List.

Column P, Q, R—Assorted Features: Several feature types 

are included in these columns. There is no significance 

in the order of listed features. Values are from the 

Arizona State Museum Feature Names Keyword List. 

Features are entered in numeric order with the lowest 

going into the first of the three columns (P).
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92 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006
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94 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 95
96 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 97
98 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 99
100 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 101

Animas, New Mexico

03-77-2 (BLM)

03-77-22 (BLM)

03-78-8 (BLM)

03-79-34 (BLM)

03-81-48 (BLM)

03-86-65 (BLM)

03-90-50 (BLM)

Animas Peak, New Mexico

03-82-79 (BLM)

Animas Peak NE, New Mexico

03-77-22 (BLM)

03-82-79 (BLM)

Antelope Pass, New Mexico

03-77-3 (BLM)

03-78-8 (BLM)

03-79-22 (BLM)

03-81-48 (BLM)

03-82-66 (BLM)

03-83-12 (BLM)

03-83-60 (BLM)

03-83-68 (BLM)

03-90-25 (BLM)

03-92-100 (BLM)

Clanton Draw, New Mexico

FS-78-30

FS-78-61

FS-78-65

FS-82-13

FS-83-17

FS-84-15

FS-84-106

FS-85-93

FS-88-9

FS-88-34

FS-88-75

FS-88-85

FS-89-02

FS-90-78

FS-91-17

FS-91-71

FS-92-04

FS-93-29

Guadalupe Canyon, Arizona and New Mexico

03-80-17 (BLM)

Guadalupe Springs, Arizona and New Mexico

FS-84-98

FS-85-6

FS-85-83

FS-86-06

FS-87-49

FS-87-99

FS-89-33

FS-89-69

FS-90-44

FS-91-46

FS-91-37

1984-98 (ASM)

1985-102 (ASM)

1985-165 (ASM)

1988-9 (ASM)

1989-23 (ASM)

1990-138 (ASM)

Appendix B.

Archaeological Surveys in the 

Borderlands Study Area Listed by 

USGS 7.5-minute Quad
102 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006

Hachita, New Mexico

03-80-1 (BLM)

03-82-59 (BLM)

03-86-96 (BLM)

Hachita Peak, New Mexico

03-80-1 (BLM)

03-80-13 (BLM)

03-83-56 (BLM)

03-87-7 (BLM)

03-89-11 (BLM)

03-91-93 (BLM)

03-93-94 (BLM)

03-94-84 (BLM)

03-94-88 (BLM)

Hilo Peak, New Mexico

03-83-12 (BLM)

Indian Peak, New Mexico

03-86-59 (BLM)

03-90-17 (BLM)

03-92-89 (BLM)

Mount Baldy, New Mexico

03-90-17 (BLM)

FS-82-13 

Playas Lake South, New Mexico

03-83-12 (BLM)

Playas Peak, New Mexico

03-86-96 (BLM)

03-86-108 (BLM)

03-92-136 (BLM)

Skull Canyon, Arizona and New Mexico

03-83-47 (BLM)

FS89-68

FS92-99

FS93-59

1991-002 (ASM)

1994-215 (ASM)

Tank Mountain

03-77-2 (BLM)

03-77-22 (BLM)

03-81-48 (BLM)

03-83-12 (BLM)

03-83-55 (BLM)

03-89-56 (BLM)

Walnut Wells NE

03-80-48 (BLM)

03-89-11 (BLM)

Key to Acronyms:

BLM = USDI. Bureau of Land Management

FS = USDA Forest Service

ASM = Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 103

Appendix C.

Concordance of Site Names 

and Numbers From Different 

Institutions and Surveys
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An Annotated Summary of Spanish 

Offensive Campaigns in the 

Borderlands________________________

The following information is derived from Naylor and 

Polzer (1986). Captain Juan Fernandez de la Fuente and 

Captain Don Domingo Teran led a small force of 70 soldiers 

and 60 Native American allies through the Guadalupe 

Mountains to San Bernardino in June 1695. A temporary 

base camp was established there while the Spanish pursued 

a group of Native Americans into the Chiricahua Mountains. 

The encounter was brief and ended in temporary peace. 

Fernandez and Teran detoured south to assist the Presidio 

of Cucurpe in subduing a Native American uprising but 

returned to the Chiricahua Mountains to continue their 

search for Apache rancherias. A large force of friendly 

Pimas accompanied Fernandez as far as the Dos Cabezas 

Mountains (then called the Animas Mountains and not to 

be confused with Las Animas). With sickness spreading 

through the ranks of the main Native American and Spanish 

forces, the expedition moved slowly. Finally, at the springs 

of San Simon, the campaign formally ended with the death 

of Captain Teran. The route taken back to Janos by the detachment carrying Teran and by the force led by Fernandez 

is unclear, but mention of the Alamo Hueco Mountains by 

Fernandez suggests that he may have passed north of the 

Animas range and through the Playas Valley. 

A small detachment of this force was successful in 

locating and destroying one Apache rancheria in the vicinity of the Gila River and the Peloncillo Mountains during 

the last days of this campaign, but for the most part the 

event had little impact on slowing the regional conflict. If 

anything was gained, it was a better understanding of the 

layout of the region and the locations of possible targets 

of future campaigns. 

The remaining summary is compiled from Thomas 

(1932). By the mid- to late‐18th century, frontier conditions 

were deteriorating and warfare between Spanish settlers 

and Native Americans had intensified. Apaches and other 

groups had by now acquired access to sizable horse and 

mule herds. With plundered military equipment, they 

conducted raids and vanished before presidio patrols could 

intercept them. In 1766, the Marques de Rubi was sent to 

inspect the condition of the northern presidios and to make 

recommendations to King Carlos III regarding how to 

correct the Spanish defensive posture. Rubi recommended 

a realignment of presidios, and in 1772 Viceroy Bucareli 

assigned Commander Inspector Don Hugo O’Conor the 

task. In addition to adjusting the line of defense, the Viceroy 

charged O’Conor with the protection of the region and, with 

this the Irish‐born commander pursued a fierce campaign 

against the eastern Apache of the Rio Grande and against 

the Apaches in the region north of Janos and Fronteras.

Two of O’Conor’s marches penetrated the Borderland. 

The first in 1774, was in response to the successful 

Apache attack on a Flying Company near Janos. Under 

O’Conor’s direction, 259 men from Janos, Carrizal, and 

San Buenaventura, and several Native American allies 

pursued the Apaches throughout the sierra of Alamo Hueco, 

La Hacha, and Corral de Piedra.

The second offensive expedition was conducted 

between August and September 1775, when O’Conor attempted to muster 2,228 men in a major campaign against 

the Apaches. A portion of the force from New Mexico had 

to be withdrawn because of the short supply of horses, but 

“...it was one of the largest bodies ever brought together 

John H. Madsen

Appendix D.

Additional Observations on the 

Early History of the Borderlands
110 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006

to war on the Apaches in the Southwest” (Thomas 1932: 

10). The final number of participants cannot be determined from secondary source materials, but O’Conor did 

manage to gather three large regional forces. In the east, 

governors and presidial captains from the Rio Grande 

regions scoured the Pecos and Rio Grande. Governor 

Francisco Antonio Crespo moved north from Sonora to 

the Chiricahua Mountains and then to the Gila River and 

the Rio del Norte, where his detachment met the Carrizal 

detachment lead by O’Conor. Together they searched 

the Mimbres, Mogollon, and Gila Mountains. O’Conor 

sent a detachment to explore the Sierra of Las Animas, 

Alamo Hueco, and other ranges in the Borderlands. This 

campaign had little impact on the Apache and no lasting 

relief from Apache raids. 

The next major campaign into the Borderlands was 

prompted by the need to find a route from Sonora to 

Santa Fe. In the year 1780, Don Juan Bautista de Anza 

was charged with this responsibility. Anza’s expedition 

consisted of 151 soldiers, Native Americans, and settlers 

who caravanned south from Santa Fe to Fray Cristoval on 

the Rio Grande River where Anza departed the caravan 

with an unspecified number of men to find a short road 

to Sonora. Anza crossed the Rio de las Mimbres and 

then because of the lack of water went south through 

the eastern edge of the study area, where he camped at 

the eastern springs of the Sierra de la Hacha. From here 

he went on to the Camino Real and then east to the San 

Bernardino Valley. In 1777, Don Teodoro de Croix had 

taken over the Command of the Interior Provinces from 

O’Conor. Croix sent two detachments north to assist 

Anza and to protect the expedition by seeking out and 

destroying Apache rancherias.

On November 8, 1780 Captain Don Joseph Antonio 

Vildosola left Las Nutrias in Sonora with 116 solders and 

80 Opata and marched north to intercept Anza. Vildosola’s 

detachment was unable to find Anza, but during his 

trek he dispatched several parties into the Chiricahua 

Mountains, scoured the vicinity of the San Simon Valley, 

moved northeast to the Burro Mountains and then south 

into the Animas Valley. The second detachment of 474 

troops and 120 Opata allies marched under Don Franco 

Martinez from Carrizal, New Vizcaya, to explore as far 

as the San Francisco Mountains, but remained east and 

north of the study area. Martinez did not find Anza either. 

In the end both detachments had encounters with Apache 

and retrieved stolen property from them.

Conditions on the frontier had not improved by 1783. 

From this year until his death in July 1884, Felipe de Neve 

was the Commander General of the Interior Province. He 

immediately set in motion a new campaign to seek out and 

destroy the Apaches in their own land. Neve’s strategy 

was to dislodge the widely separated Apache rancherias 

from the mountains close to the frontier, thereby forcing 

the Apache to flee north to the Gila where detachments 

would follow and attack them. During the year 1784, a 

considerable number of men entered the Borderlands. 

Patrols searched the mountains near the frontier with such 

success that in March 1784, Neve sent two detachments 

under the direction of Adjutant Inspector Don Rogue de 

Medina. The General of the Opata Nation, Don Francisco 

Medrano, also set forth with over 100 men from the 

Presidio of Fronteras and surrounding communities into 

the Borderlands and the Gila country.

From April 15 to the middle of May 1784, five Divisions 

with over 300 Spanish troops, volunteers, and Pima and 

Opata allies again entered the Borderlands in a major 

move against the Apache. Two divisions from Fronteras 

and one division each from the Presidios of Janos, Tucson, 

and Velarde descended upon the Borderlands. Included 

in their search was the region of Animas Valley, Santo 

Domingo Playa, Mimbres Valley, Hachett Mountains, 

Burro Mountains, San Francisco Mountains, the San 

Simon, the Chiricahua Mountains, and the banks of the 

Gila River.

After Neve’s death, Joseph Antonio Rengel was 

appointed interim Commander General and under his 

command in 1786, Lieutenant Colonel Don Francisco 

Martinez and Captain Don Antonio Cordero scoured the 

Borderlands with 354 men divided among three divisions 

from Carrizal, Janos, San Eleceario, and other outposts. 

The diaries of Martinez and Cordero indicate they carried 

out reconnaissance into all of the valleys and ranges in 

the Borderlands. 

Early Observations Regarding Fire, 

Smoke, and Accidental and Natural 

Fires in the Borderlands_____________

In the diary of General Juan Fernandez de la Fuente in 

June 1695 (Naylor and Polzer 1986: 592), he notes:

After traveling about one league, we found a spring in 

a mesquite grove. Below it we found more than forty 

separate ash mounds with beds of grass around each 

one. Since the tracts and the hot ashes were very fresh, 

we asked the Indian captive when the enemy had been 

there and how long they had stayed at this place. He 

answered that they had spent the night there on their 

way to the frontier. 

The entry for September 16, 1695 (Naylor and Polzer 

1986: 640–641) recounts:
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006 111

The sentinel that we had posted reported seeing a smoke 

signal in the middle of the Mountains. When we saw 

heavy smoke rising from the canyon at the head of 

this arroyo, we knew that the thirty-six troops under 

the command of Lieutenant Antonio de Solis who had 

left the night before were in combat, because they had 

been told to send us a smoke signal.

Don Juan Bautista de Anza, Governor of the Province 

of New Mexico, also notes smoke rising from the surrounding sierras on his expedition to open a road from 

Santa Fe to Sonora. Along the road 51 leagues south of 

Santa Fe on the Camino Real of the Rio del Norte, Anza 

surmises the following (Thomas 1932:198):

From ten in the morning until the end of the afternoon, 

a cloud of smoke was observed at five leagues distance 

along the way we were traveling. It was inferred from 

the smoke that the fire was made by our common 

enemies to advise each other, as they are always accustomed, that we were along this road. 

From April 15, until May, 1784, Adjutant‐Inspector, Don 

Rogue de Medina searched through the Borderland study 

area for rancherias of the Apache. His search was frustrating 

because, as he notes (Thomas 1932: 248), the:

...enemies situated on the top of the sierras 

which dominate the country had observed the 

camp, avoiding it carefully and communicated 

prompt advice of the troop movements from one 

rancheria to another now by smoke and again 

by messenger.

In the campaign of November and December 1785, 

Lieutenant Colonel Don Francisco Martinez (Thomas 1932: 

283) indicates:

During the morning I continued keeping near the slopes 

of this sierra on the route to El Cobre. I discovered on 

arriving at one of the canyons a considerable number 

of Indians discharging muskets from above. Having 

already without doubt learned of the other detachment 

from the many smokes and trails that had come from 

those directions they had entered this sierra with horse 

herds and stock.

The second detachment of the November and 

December campaign of 1785 was led by the Captain of 

the Royal Presidio of San Buenaventura, Don Antonio 

Cordero. This detachment searched the Animas Valley, 

Las Playas de Santo Domingo, and north to the Las 

Burras Mountains. Cordero’s diary indicates he too saw 

many smoke signals in the Las Burras and elsewhere. 

He relates that a scouting party led by Lieutenant Don 

Manual Casanova reported “...large smoke having been 

sent up on El Picacho of Las Mimbres [Cooke’s Peak], 

those of Las Burras were communicating with others, 

the ones I had seen...” (Thomas 1932: 288). Cordero 

also describes a possible range fire near Las Burras 

started from excessive heat on November 26, 1785. 

Oddly enough Cordero’s detachment lost 30 horses or 

mules 8 days later in Las Animas from lack of pasture 

and heavy snows covering the ground. 

In 1795, Zuniga found a burned area around a spring 

on his way to Zuni (Hammond 1931). This spring was 

between Zuni and the San Francisco River.

Dobyns (1981) provides insight into the intentional 

burning of the landscape by Apaches. He cites from the 

1830 diary of Captain Don Antonio Comaduran who 

observed Apaches setting fires to the range north of 

Aravaipa Canyon. Although Comaduran does not state a 

reason for this act, Dobyns refers to it as a hunting tactic 

based on an earlier 1796 account by Colonial Don Antonio 

Cordero. Cordero “...described a large‐scale circular 

fire‐and‐noise game drive as a major Apache hunting 

custom” (Dobyns 1981: 27). Such an account by Cordero 

was not encountered in the research for this paper. 

Boundary Commissioner John Russell Bartlett journeyed from the copper mines of New Mexico to Arispe, 

Sonora, in May 1851. He and his party passed through 

the Borderlands on their way. On their return trip to 

the copper mines in June 1851, concerning Guadalupe 

Mountain he observed (Bartlett 1854: 295–296):

A fire has passed over it, destroying all the grass and 

shrubbery, and turning the green leaves of the sycamores into brown and yellow. The surface of the earth 

was covered with black ash, and we scarcely recognized 

it as the enchanting place of our former visit. At first 

we feared that this devastation had been caused by our 

own neglect; but on reaching the spot where we had 

encamped, which was separated from the surrounding 

hills by the rocky bed of the stream, we found the dry 

grass still around the place, which alone had escaped 

the fire. A little further on we came to a camp of two 

hundred Mexican soldiers, a portion of the brigade 

of General Carrasco [from Fronteras]...It was evident 

now how the fire which I have mentioned originated. 

A portion of the brigade had passed the canyon a few 

days after us [June 1851]; and their twenty or thirty 

camp fires had, no doubt, communicated the flames 

to the grass, which had afterwards extended over the 

whole mountain. 

Roads and Trails Through and Adjacent 

to the Borderlands__________________

Native American Trails

Undoubtedly, prior to the Hispanic period extensive 

Native American trails lead north to south and east to west 

over the Borderlands. According Charles Di Peso (1974), 

Fray Marcos de Niza followed the old Bavispe‐Acoma 

trail passing through the San Bernardino Valley.
112 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-176. 2006

Spanish Trails 1742 to 1800

In 1712, Juan Ignacio Flores Mogollon lead an expedition into unexplored land southwest of the Rio de 

Norte. He gave his name to the Mogollon Mountains of 

southwestern New Mexico, but it is unlikely he entered 

the Borderlands. 

In a quest for a short route from Santa Fe, New 

Mexico to Sonora, the Spanish made several attempts to 

traverse the country north of the Borderlands. Some of 

these detachments may have entered the study area. Fray 

Silvestre Velez de Escalante’s letter to Reverend Father 

Provincial Minister, Fray Ysido Murillo in 1776 relates 

two reports of potential routes between Zuni and Sonora 

(Thomas 1932). First, in 1747, Don Bernardo de Miera 

followed a route between Zuni and the San Francisco 

and Gila Rivers by proceeding from El Paso, Santa Fe, 

Janos, and Corodeguachi. This may be similar to a 1754 

route that Escalente believed to have intersected the 

San Francisco River. Escalante states that Don Marcial 

Barrera “...with two other Spaniards and one hundred 

Zuni Indians set out in pursuit of some Apaches from 

this pueblo of Zuni. Having marched three days to the 

south, he attacked the rancheria of Chief Chafalote, a 

Gila Apache...” (Thomas 1931: 156).

Hammond (1931) provides the following information 

from the translated diary of Captain Don Jose de Zuniga 

(1795) regarding an attempt to find Miera’s route from 

Sonora to Zuni. In October and November 1788, Captain 

Don Marcial de Echeagaray set out to find the pass reported 

by Miera that led from the San Francisco River to Zuni 

Pueblo. He traveled north from San Marcial with nearly 

300 troops to the San Francisco River and was successful 

in finding the pass only to be turned back by exhaustion. 

At the end of the 18th century, Don Jose de Zuniga left 

Tucson with instructions to locate the pass reported by 

Miera in 1747 and by Echeagaray in 1788. Zuniga, with 

provisions for 50 days, traveled to the abandoned Presidio 

of Santa Cruz where he gathered additional men from 

adjacent towns (some from Fronteras). From Santa Cruz 

he marched north in a direct route with over 100 men 

to the San Francisco River where he found the pass and 

entered the Pueblo of Zuni on May 1, 1795. His exact 

route between Santa Cruz and the river is not known but 

he might have passed through the Borderlands. Zuniga 

followed portions of well-used Native American trails 

through the mountains and onto the upland north of the 

river.

As indicated in descriptions of military campaigns, 

Don Juan Bautista de Anza also attempted to find a short 

route from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to Arispe, Sonora. 

From Fray Cristoval on the Rio del Norte, Anza turned 

west, passing over the Mimbres, but out of desperation 

for water turned south to known sources in the vicinity 

of the Sierra de la Hacha. Anza then joined the Camino 

Real between Janos and Fronteras and followed it to San 

Bernardino. 

Roads of 1800 to 1856

By 1804, ore bodies were being explored north of the 

study area at Santa Rita del Cobre east of present-day 

Silver City. Supply roads were established south into 

Chihuahua, and a minor trail went southwest to Janos. 

On November 13, 1846, the Mormon Battalion began 

its march west from the Rio Grande River to California. 

From the Rio Grande the party traveled to the mouth of 

the Mimbres River and then southwest crossing into the 

Borderlands on November 23, 1846, at Las Playas. For 

10 days the battalion traveled southwest, passing to the 

right of the Animas Range. They cleared a road near the 

pass of Guadalupe and made their way to the old rancho 

of San Bernardino.

At the copper mine of Santa Rita in the vicinity of 

present day Silver City, the Boundary Commission established temporary headquarters while mapping the new 

boundary between Mexico and the United States. From 

this place on May 16, 1851, John Russell Bartlett set out 

with a party of 10 associates and a small support group 

to examine Cooke’s wagon road to the Gila. Bartlett was 

eager to establish a transportation and supply route for the 

mapping parties that would be working on the Gila River 

survey. Bartlett also was eager to renew communication 

and trade with the Mexican frontier towns in Sonora to 

acquire flour, cattle, sheep, fruits, and vegetables for the 

Santa Rita headquarters and for survey parties working 

west of the Rio Grande.

Bartlett and his companions entered the study area on 

May 18, 1851, traveling through Las Playas, over the 

pass known as the Sierra de los Animas. The party made 

its way through the Animas Valley and with extreme 

difficulty crossed the pass of Guadalupe and reached 

the ruins of San Bernardino on May 21, 1851. Bartlett’s 

party continued south and visited Fronteras on May 24 

and Arispe on May 31, 1851. Bartlett returned to the copper mines in June of that year by the same route through 

the Borderlands. U.S. Boundary Commissioner Bartlett 

followed Mexican Commissioner Conde in September 

1851, north of the Borderlands, and this trip set the stage 

for later use of this route west by others.
The Rocky Mountain Research Station develops scientific 

information and technology to improve management, protection, 

and use of the forests and rangelands. Research is designed to 

meet the needs of the National Forest managers, Federal and State 

agencies, public and private organizations, academic institutions, 

industry, and individuals.

Studies accelerate solutions to problems involving ecosystems, 

range, forests, water, recreation, fire, resource inventory, land 

reclamation, community sustainability, forest engineering 

technology, multiple use economics, wildlife and fish habitat, and 

forest insects and diseases. Studies are conducted cooperatively, 

and applications may be found worldwide.

Research Locations

Flagstaff, Arizona Reno, Nevada

Fort Collins, Colorado* Albuquerque, New Mexico

Boise, Idaho Rapid City, South Dakota

Moscow, Idaho Logan, Utah

Bozeman, Montana Ogden, Utah

Missoula, Montana Provo, Utah

*Station Headquarters, Natural Resources Research Center, 2150 

Centre Avenue, Building A, Fort Collins, CO 80526.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in 

all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, 

age, disability, and where applicable, sex, marital status, familial status, 

parental status, religion, sexual orientation, genetic information, political 

beliefs, reprisal, or because all or part of an individual’s income is derived 

from any public assistance program. (Not all prohibited bases apply to 

all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for 

communication of program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, 

etc.) should contact USDA’s TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice 

and TDD). To file a complaint of discrimination, write to USDA, Director, 

Office of Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, DC 

20250-9410, or call (800) 795-3272 (voice) or (202) 720-6382 (TDD). 

USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.

Federal Recycling Program Printed on Recycled Paper

RMRS

Rocky Mountain Research Station