Mile Canyon | |
Location | Just downstream from Langtry |
---|---|
Nearest city | Langtry, Texas |
Coordinates | 29°48′35″N101°33′01″W / 29.80972°N 101.55028°W |
Area | 1,500 acres (610 ha) |
Part of | Lower Pecos Canyonlands Archeological District (ID100006256) |
NRHP reference No. | 70000773 [1] |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | October 15, 1970 |
Designated NHLDCP | January 13, 2021 |
Mile Canyon or more recently known as Eagle Nest Canyon is a tributary canyon of the Rio Grande entering on the north side of the river just downstream from Langtry, Texas. Mile Canyon received its name due to its length being approximately one mile long. In more recent years, this canyon is more commonly referred to as Eagle Nest Canyon, named after a nesting pair of golden eagles observed nearby. [2] It has been an important area of many archaeological and geological expeditions over the past century.
Mile Canyon is found on the northern boundary of the Chihuahuan Desert.
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This canyon and its surrounding upland edge contains numerous sites ranging from dry rockshelters to burned rock middens to upland “hearth” fields. [3] The canyon is primarily recognized for Bonfire Shelter, Kelly Cave, Eagle Cave, and other natural shelters that were used by Native Americans up to 13,500 years ago. Bonfire Shelter features a prehistoric bison jump, where wild herds of bison were driven off the cliff edge by Native American hunters and died below. The bison were then harvested for clothing, food and tools. The jumps occurred as early as 9700 BC and as recently as 800 BC. [4]
The canyon was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 AD. The historic district comprises a 1,500 acre (6 km2) area entirely on private land.
In 2014, archaeological research was conducted on the many sites found within and around the canyon by a crew from Texas State University. This research was part of a multiyear research design focused on the Lower Pecos Canyonlands called the Ancient Southwest Texas Project.
The Natural Bridge Caverns are the largest commercial caverns in the U.S. state of Texas. The name is derived from the 60 ft natural limestone slab bridge that spans the amphitheater setting of the cavern's entrance. The span was left suspended when a sinkhole collapsed below it.
Langtry is an unincorporated community in Val Verde County, Texas, United States. The community is notable as the place where Judge Roy Bean, the "Law West of the Pecos", had his saloon and practiced law.
Starved Rock State Park is a state park in the U.S. state of Illinois, characterized by the many canyons within its 2,630 acres (1,064 ha). Located just southeast of the village of Utica, in Deer Park Township, LaSalle County, Illinois, along the south bank of the Illinois River, the park hosts over two million visitors annually, the most for any Illinois state park.
The Bhimbetka rock shelters are an archaeological site in central India that spans the Paleolithic and Mesolithic periods, as well as the historic period. It exhibits the earliest traces of human life in India and evidence of the Stone Age starting at the site in Acheulian times. It is located in the Raisen District in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, about 45 kilometres (28 mi) south-east of Bhopal. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that consists of seven hills and over 750 rock shelters distributed over 10 km (6.2 mi). At least some of the shelters were inhabited more than 100,000 years ago.
Bonfire Shelter is an archaeological site located in a southwest Texas rock shelter, near Langtry, Texas. This archaeological site contains evidence of mass American buffalo hunts, a phenomenon that is usually associated with the Great Plains hundreds of miles to the north. This site is the southernmost site that has been located in North America, where mass bison hunts have taken place.
Lubbock Lake Landmark, also known as Lubbock Lake Site, is an important archeological site and natural history preserve in the city of Lubbock, Texas. The preserve is 336 acres and is a protected state and federal landmark. There is evidence of ancient people and extinct animals at Lubbock Lake Landmark. It has evidence of nearly 12,000 years of use by ancient cultures on the Llano Estacado. It is part of the Museum of Texas Tech University.
A buffalo jump, or sometimes bison jump, is a cliff formation which Indigenous peoples of North America historically used to hunt and kill plains bison in mass quantities. The broader term game jump refers to a man-made jump or cliff used for hunting other game, such as reindeer.
Southwestern archaeology is a branch of archaeology concerned with the Southwestern United States and Northwestern Mexico. This region was first occupied by hunter-gatherers, and thousands of years later by advanced civilizations, such as the Ancestral Puebloans, the Hohokam, and the Mogollon.
Folsom site or Wild Horse Arroyo, designated by the Smithsonian trinomial 29CX1, is a major archaeological site about 8 miles (13 km) west of Folsom, New Mexico. It is the type site for the Folsom tradition, a Paleo-Indian cultural sequence dating to between 11000 BC and 10000 BC. The Folsom site was excavated in 1926 and found to have been a marsh-side kill site or camp where 32 bison had been killed using distinctive tools, known as Folsom points. This site is significant because it was the first time that artifacts indisputably made by humans were found directly associated with faunal remains from an extinct form of bison from the Late Pleistocene. The information culled from this site was the first of a set of discoveries that would allow archaeologists to revise their estimations for the time of arrival of Native Americans on the North American continent.
Gatecliff Rockshelter (26NY301) is a major archaeological site in the Great Basin area of the western United States that provides remarkable stratigraphy; it has been called the "deepest archaeological rock shelter in the Americas". Located in Mill Canyon of the Toquima Range in the Monitor Valley of central Nevada, Gatecliff Rockshelter has an elevation of 7,750 feet (2,360 m). David Hurst Thomas discovered Gatecliff Rockshelter in 1970 and began excavations in 1971. Full scale excavations occurred at Gatecliff Rockshelter for about seven field seasons in which nearly 33 feet (10 m) of sediments were exposed for a well-defined stratigraphic sequence. The well-preserved artifacts and undisturbed sediments at Gatecliff Rockshelter provides data and information have been applied to a range of research topics. Based on the analysis of the artifacts at Gatecliff Rockshelter, it can be determined that it was most likely a short-term field camp throughout prehistory. The latest evidence for human usage at Gatecliff occurs between ca. 5500 B.P. to 1250 B.P.
Bobcat Trail Habitation Cave is a historic site of Ancient Hawaiian living quarters in a remote interior area of the island of Hawaiʻi.
Prehistory of Colorado provides an overview of the activities that occurred prior to Colorado's recorded history. Colorado experienced cataclysmic geological events over billions of years, which shaped the land and resulted in diverse ecosystems. The ecosystems included several ice ages, tropical oceans, and a massive volcanic eruption. Then, ancient layers of earth rose to become the Rocky Mountains.
Cueva de la Momia is an archaeological site located in the region of Ciudad Madera, in the Sirupa Canyon region, in the northwest of the Mexican state of Chihuahua. It is located at the foot of a very high cliff on the ravine of the Arroyo del Venado, shortly before it joins the Rio Chico; in the vicinity of the Huápoca Canyon, is a series of caves where a number of mummies were found.
Huápoca is an archaeological site located 36 kilometers west of Ciudad Madera, in the Huápoca Canyon region, northwest of the Mexican state of Chihuahua.
Franktown Cave is located 25 miles (40 km) south of Denver, Colorado on the north edge of the Palmer Divide. It is the largest rock shelter documented on the Palmer Divide, which contains artifacts from many prehistoric cultures. Prehistoric hunter-gatherers occupied Franktown Cave intermittently for 8,000 years beginning about 6400 BC The site held remarkable lithic and ceramic artifacts, but it is better known for its perishable artifacts, including animal hides, wood, fiber and corn. Material goods were produced for their comfort, task-simplification and religious celebration. There is evidence of the site being a campsite or dwelling as recently as AD 1725.
Roxborough State Park Archaeological District is located in Douglas County, Colorado. Roxborough State Park, 25 miles (40 km) south of Denver, Colorado, is a Colorado State Park day park. Archaeological artifacts reflect that there were prehistoric hunter-gatherers who lived or camped, made tools from stone quarries, and farmed in the Roxborough State Park area.
The Trinchera Cave Archeological District (5LA9555) is an archaeological site in Las Animas County, Colorado with artifacts primarily dating from 1000 BC to AD 1749, although there were some Archaic period artifacts found. The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2001 and is located on State Trust Lands.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the prehistoric people of Colorado, which covers the period of when Native Americans lived in Colorado prior to contact with the Domínguez–Escalante expedition in 1776. People's lifestyles included nomadic hunter-gathering, semi-permanent village dwelling, and residing in pueblos.
The Apishapa culture, or Apishapa Phase, a prehistoric culture from 1000 to 1400, was named based upon an archaeological site in the Lower Apishapa canyon in Colorado. The Apishapa River, a tributary of the Arkansas River, formed the Apishapa canyon. In 1976, there were 68 Apishapa sites on the Chaquaqua Plateau in southeastern Colorado.
Seminole Canyon State Park and Historic Site is a state park in the U.S. state of Texas. It is located off U.S. Route 90, east of the Pecos River High Bridge, 9 miles (14 km) west of Comstock in Val Verde County. The park is conducive to camping, biking, bird watching, back packing and archeological study. Cave art and archeological artifacts date back to the earliest human habitation in the area. The park is part of the larger Seminole Canyon Archeological District on the National Register of Historic Places.
"Eagle's Nest - Langtry ~ Marker Number: 13175". Texas Historic Sites Atlas . Texas Historical Commission. 2003.[ permanent dead link ]