Lone Butte: A Folsom Hunting Camp and Overlook in the Central Tularosa Basin of New Mexico

Abstract

The Lone Butte site represents a substantial lithic assemblage from a Folsom hunting camp and overlook locality in the central Tularosa Basin of south-central New Mexico. It appears to be similar to the Rio Rancho site in the Central Rio Grande Valley in terms of its landscape position and assemblage signature. Lone Butte represents the largest and most comprehensive lithic assemblage from any Paleoindian site in the Tularosa Basin, strongly documented to have a substantial history of Folsom occupation. Interestingly, the Lone Butte assemblage is distinguished from the overall regional pattern in having relatively high proportions of preforms and channel flakes, which are made predominantly from Rancheria chert located at a distance of 40–100 km west of the site. This assemblage clearly reflects the anticipated mobility which seems partly characteristic of Folsom technological and settlement organization.

Keywords:

• Folsom
• hunting camp
• land use
• Tularosa basin
• New Mexico

Acknowledgements

First and foremost, DSA is indebted to Dr Raymond Mauldin for his unending support and encouragement in building the Tularosa Basin dataset reported in this paper. Direct support leading to the production of this paper was provided to DSA by a short-term visitor fellowship by the Office of Fellowships and Grants at the Smithsonian Institution under the sponsorship of DJS. James Di Loreto at the Smithsonian provided the artifact photographs in Figure 1 (NHB2015-04674 and NHB2015-04675). This broader study depended on the help of many other individuals and institutions. Snowball sampling was used to ferret out these collections from dozens of sources over two decades — much of this effort was motivated by desire and encouragement by our colleagues to document collections before they and the contextual information associated with them was lost. Such work will likely never be possible again as the window of opportunity has rapidly closed. Accordingly, sincere appreciation is extended to the assistance of Ele and Tony Baker (deceased), Jim Davis (deceased), Moi Garcia, Jack Hedrick (deceased), Jerry Larson (deceased), Charles Rhoton (deceased), Marty Rose, Richard Rose, Paul Russell, Sr. (deceased), and Bob Weber (deceased). Special thanks to Dr Bob Burton (retired from the White Sands Missile Range), Dr Glen DeGarmo (retired from Fort Bliss), Dr Tim Baugh (retired), and Paul Lukowski, formerly of TRC Solutions, El Paso; Drs Krisz Kosse (deceased) and Kim Trinkaus, formerly of the Maxwell Museum at the University of New Mexico; Julia Clifton and Dr Tim Seaman (retired) from the Laboratory of Anthropology of the Museum of New Mexico; the Centennial Museum of the University of Texas at El Paso; the El Paso Archaeological Society; and the Tigua Indian Cultural Center. Special thanks to Dr Matthew Root and Dr John Seebach for careful reading and thoughtful commentary that was helpful in improving the manuscript. Conversations with Dr David Carmichael, Pete Eidenbach, and Dr Karl Laumbaugh helped to improve our understanding about Paleoindian archaeology in the Tularosa Basin. Thanks to Drs Brooke Morgan and Brian Andrews for welcoming this contribution to this collection of papers.

ORCID

Daniel S. Amick http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9828-2573

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Daniel S. Amick

Author Biographies

Daniel S. Amick (PhD 1994, University of New Mexico) is an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology and Institute of Environmental Sustainability at Loyola University Chicago. His research interests include Paleoindian and Archaic archaeology of North America, lithic technology, paleoecology, human ecology, and forced migration studies.

Dennis J. Stanford

Dennis J. Stanford (PhD 1972, University of New Mexico) is director of the Smithsonian's Paleoindian/Paleoecology Program and curator of North and South American Paleolithic, Asian Paleolithic, and western US archaeological collections. His research interests include origins and development of New World Paleoindian cultures in relation to changing climate and ecosystems during the terminal Pleistocene, stone tool technology, and experimental and public archaeology.