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Archaeological investigations of high altitude sites near Monarch Pass, Colorado
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1990) Hutchinson, Lewis A., author; Eighmy, Jeffrey, advisor; Benedict, James B., committee member; Leyendecker, Liston, committee member
The tundra and upper forest border north of Monarch Pass. in the central Colorado Rocky Mountains. contains a cluster of twelve sites. One of the sites. Water Dog Divide Game Drive, is an extensive system of rock alignments and associated hunting blinds. This site and other smaller systems in the Monarch site area are at present the southernmost documented examples of prehistoric timberline game drives along the Continental Divide. Cultural materials include projectile points. other flaked tools, groundstone and a broken ceramic vessel. Temporal periods indicated are 3000 B.C. to the historic. Two hunting blinds were excavated and three radiocarbon dates were obtained with corrected dates ranging from 900 A.D. - 1640 A.O. Four of the rock walls in the largest drive site contain a number of remnant wooden posts or sewels apparently used to help delineate the rock walls. It is hypothesized that the area was utilized on a seasonal basis to camp and communally hunt large game animals (bison, mule deer, elk. and mountain sheep). The sites may have been visited by peoples from the Plains. Great Basin. and Southwestern culture areas.