Archaeology of Hutchinson County by Wes Phillips


Excavated Sites in Hutchinson County

Hutchinson County has more excavated archeological sites than any other county in the Texas Panhandle. The first recorded excavations took place in 1874, when buffalo hunters at the Adobe Walls buffalo hunter settlement rode to the original Fort Adobe built in the 1830s and dug up some Indian trade materials. The biggest push for excavations came during the depression of the late 1930s and early 1940s when WPA workers excavated at the Antelope Creek Village site.
      Hundreds of workers were employed in the Texas Panhandle, and many of them at Antelope Creek. Excavations have continued, with the excavations at Duncan Ranch in 1992 being the latest. Others are planned nearby, so we will recover more data in the future. Twenty-seven sites are listed in this paper. Others may have been excavated which I do not recognize.

     Cultural continuity in the Texas Panhandle begins with the Clovis Paleoindians more than 12,000 years ago. These people made the well-known Clovis points and were the hunters of the Imperial Mammoth, an extinct Elephant. The Folsom people followed the Clovis, and were likely their descendants. They hunted a form of Bison that stood ten feet high at the shoulder. The following Plano groups also hunted these Bison.
      Following these Paleoindian groups, the Texas Panhandle entered a phase known as the Archaic. The giant animals were gone. Conditions deteriorated and at times droughts which lasted for centuries prohibited settlement. During this period, the Indians who did live here used the atlatl or spear thrower to hurl spears with darts on the end. These darts were often mounted on short shafts which fit into the main shaft, so the spear could be used several times on the same animal. About 2000 years ago, two cultures moved into the Texas Panhandle.
      The woodland culture came from the east and brought with it cord-marked pottery and the bow and arrow. From the Southwest the Palo Duro people with deeply corner notched arrow points and thick brownware pottery also came into our area. At or before 1500 the early Apachean tribes wandered into our area only to be forced out by the Comanches after 1700.

Stinnett Bison Site

     In the summer of 2002, The City of Stinnett began excavations for a swimming pool. As they neared the bottom of the proposed pool, they struck large bones. All work was immediately stopped, and Archeologists called in. Deborah Summers was named the Principal investigator, while Jeff Indek and Rolla Shaller supervised the dig much of the time on site. A bison site of a prehistoric type of Bison was uncovered as well as a large triangular dart point with deep corner notches. It is believed that this was an early wet area where the Bison mired and died. The point may or may not be associated with the Bison.

Jack Allen Site

     The Jack Allen Site, located on a terrace above Spring Creek, is by far the most unusual of the Hutchinson County Plains Village sites to have been excavated. West Texas State University Anthropological Society excavated one room in 1969 and 1970. The main difference in this ruin and those discussed below appears to be the use of upright posts as the primary wall supports rather than slabs of rock. Another room on this site remains unexcavated and is located about 150 feet northwest of the excavated room. It is the easternmost of the Plains Village sites to have been excavated in Hutchinson County (but see the Duncan Ranch site below).

Zollars Site

     At least seven small rooms or structures have been located on this site located at the base of steep bluffs north of Little Sandy Creek. Lathel Duffield excavated this site during the summer of 1961.

Tarbox Site

     The Tarbox site is located on a high mesa near Tarbox Creek, a tributary of the Canadian River not far from Cottonwood Creek. It consists of five rooms or structures scattered along the top of the bluff. In addition, it is likely that several other rooms were once present here, since the entire area was not fully excavated. The excavator was W. C. Holden who published his findings in 1929.

Black Dog Village

     This site was discovered during some construction and widening of highway 136 between Borger and Stinnett. It is located on a low terrace of Cottonwood Creek and consists of one large structure and two or more smaller structures. Excavated by the Texas Highway Department and the Panhandle Archeological Society, it was reported by John Keller in 1975.

Cottonwood Creek Ruins

     his ruin was first recorded in 1920. It consists of a number of small structures or rooms surrounding a spring near the head of a drainage which empties into Cottonwood Creek. It was excavated by Norpan archeological society in 1958 and 1959.

Lookout Ruin

     Lookout Ruin is located on a mesa on the floodplain of Antelope Creek. Four structures were found here, but only one was excavated. This site was excavated in the early 1930s by Floyd Studer, director of the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum in Canyon.

Antelope Creek Ruin 22 and 22A

     Antelope Creek Ruin 22 was first excavated in 1920 by Warren K. Morehead. This ruin was one of the typical sites selected as the type site for the Antelope Creek Focus. It consists of a large room-block of contiguous rooms with several smaller structures located nearby. There are seven principal rooms all with adjoining walls which were fully excavated during the late 1930s and early 1940s using WPA labor. William Holden made the first large-scale excavations in 1929. These were followed in the 1930s by several excavators and culminated in the WPA excavations of 1938 through 1941.
      Ruin 22A is located about 150 feet to the east of ruin 22 and consists a series of small rooms near the bottom of a bluff. That is to say, it lies between Ruin 22 and Lookout Ruin still further east. The largest of these structures is a house about 15 by 20 feet in size with adjacent and contiguous storage rooms. Another similar house may have been nearby, but was not complete by the time of the excavations.

Antelope Creek Ruin 23

     Ruin 23 is located across Antelope Creek from Ruin 22 and consists of stone slabs, which represents the remains of a house or series of houses which have now disappeared due to erosion. One structure remaining was about 15 by 20 in size.

Antelope Creek Ruin 24

     This site lies about one quarter of a mile above Ruin 22 and consists of a number of structures at the base of a bluff on Antelope Creek. It was excavated in 1939 by WPA workers under Ele and Jewell Baker.

Conner Site

     The Conner, Roper, and Sanford sites are located along the south side of the Canadian River near Spring Canyon. The Conner site is located near the head of Spring Canyon near a point which juts out above the Spring Canyon arroyo. The Conner(s) site consists of at least two circular rooms or structures very nearly joined together to form a figure-8. This site was excavated by the Texas Archeology Salvage Project in 1961.
     Artifacts recovered at this site include two side scrapers, two retouched flakes, a grinding stone and some small flint chips which represent flint working on the site. This site and several others like it are believed to be gardening locations. The figure 8 style structure seems to have been popular along the Canadian River and it is believed that one half of the structure was used as shelter while the other was for storage of harvested crops such as corn, beans, squash, and tobacco.

Roper Site

     Here, near South Canyon the presence of four small circular buildings was proven by excavations of a number of rock scatters. The Norpan Archeological Society under the direction of William E. Dumas excavated this site in 1957 and made a brief report on it. It is a Panhandle Aspect site with the remains of slab house structures.
     This site is located on the south side of the Canadian River on a low bench about midway down the escarpment and is opposite the Conner site but at lower elevation. The hillside here is covered at present with mesquite and grasses and may have afforded a location for gardening activities in the past.
     Pottery recovered here is of the Borger Cord-marked variety and consisted of only a single sherd. Remains of several milling stones indicate the processing of plant materials at this site, perhaps grinding of corn or wild plant material. Part of a flint knife was also recovered here.

Spring Canyon Site

     This site is located where Spring Canyon empties into the Canadian River, but is on the high bluff overlooking the river. Four structures are exposed here, and others are likely buried nearby. Duffield excavated here in 1961.

Medford Ranch Site

     The Medford Ranch site is located on a bench above the west side of Spring Canyon. At least four structures are present on this extensive site and one or more of these appear to be large house ruins. It was excavated in 1961 by Lathel Duffield.
     This site represents a small Panhandle Village site. It is between 500 and 1000 years of age and would be considered to be a moderately sized site. Bone and mussel shell from this locality indicate processing of animal products. Flint working was common here as shown by the number of flint flakes in the debitage.

Pickett Ruin

     The Pickett site is located near the south end of Sanford Dam near the Conner, Roper, and Sanford sites. The Pickett Ruin consists of a single circular structure less than eight feet across with a midden or trash dumping area to the north east of the site. It has been radiocarbon dated to around 1240AD. Dick and Ruth Mary Carter excavated this site in 1958.

Sanford Ruin

     Sanford Ruin was excavated in 1953 under the direction of Jack T. Hughes. It is located to the north of the final site of Sanford Dam and was excavated as part of the preparations for the building of the dam. It consists of several contiguous rooms and about three separate rooms.

Arrowhead Peak Site

     Arrowhead peak is also known as Arrowhead Island or Rattlesnake Island and is now situated in the waters of Lake Meredith. At least eight rooms were discovered here and excavated in 1963 by Texas Tech. An additional excavation was made in 1965.
     This conical hilltop was the site of heavy activity in the Panhandle Aspect period between 500 and 1000 years ago. The Canadian River ran near the base of this peak, and Bugbee creek flowed nearby as a source of drinking water. A number of unnotched points in the artifacts here indicate that this site may have been occupied up until the late 1400s as the number of unnotched points such as Fresno and Young styles increased in numbers as the historic period was nearing.

Cedar Rim Site

     This site, located on the eastern rim of Cedar Canyon consisted of a lithic scatter which included Plains Village materials. This site was tested in 1977 by Livingston Sutro with a crew of YCC enrollees. The presence of Borger Cordmarked pottery indicates a Panhandle Aspect component although no slabhouse was located.
     This site is located above the Cedar Canyon boat ramp and had previously been disturbed by erosion and oil field activities. This site is likely to be a hunting camp or perhaps a camp where the occupants would venture out to garden and gather wild plants. The number of flint flakes indicate that flint working was practiced here and also milling of plant materials.

South Ridge Site

     This site was tested in 1977 by Livingston Sutro and testing was continued in 1978 by Meeks Etchieson, each using a crew of YCC enrollees. It was found to be a two-component site, with Palo Duro and Panhandle Aspect components horizontally separated. First reported by Cummings and Clark in 1968, it is located on gently sloping ground near the crest of a ridge in the South Canyon drainage.
     The western end of the site, located near a road junction of two oil field dirt roads was similar to the Cedar Rim Site, and was likely a hunting camp between 500 and 1000 years ago. The eastern end was a more substantial camp and of an older age, being around 1500 to 2000 years old. Small triangular arrowheads were found on each site; those of the earlier component being deeply corner notched and called Deadman points after similar points found at Deadman rock shelter previously excavated on the Texas South Plains. The Panhandle Aspect points called Harrell or Washita points are equally small, but are more narrow in construction and notched on the sides.

Duncan Ranch Site

     The Duncan Ranch site 1 lies on a hill overlooking a terrace floodplain of White Deer Creek. Mary Gustafson and members of the Panhandle Archaeological Society excavated the Duncan Ranch Site 1 in March of 1992. The mixture of Woodland and Plains Village artifacts at this site may indicate a continuity between the two cultures or may be similar to the South Ridge Site above.

Antelope Creek Bridge

     Just above the Bridge between Borger and Fritch a site has disappeared due to development. Along this part of Antelope Creek Paleoindian projectile points similar to those excavated at the Clovis Mammoth Site and near Sandia Peak in New Mexico have been found. If excavated prior to development, it is likely that another chapter in Hutchinson County’s past would have reappeared.

Merchant Ranch Elephant Quarry

     This site located about one mile above the Canadian River between Sanford and Stinnett, was excavated in the early 1950s by Dr. Jack Hughes. Here the remains of several Imperial Mammoth were found where they had bogged down in a marshy area near a stream. The site is believed to be about 30,000 years old.

Adobe Walls Battlefield Site

     In 1976, The 1874 Adobe Walls Battle Site was excavated by Panhandle Plains Historical Museum under the direction of Billy Harrison. This site is a time capsule of a small settlement of mid 1874, since the site was only occupied for about three months. Excavations uncovered the foundations of the 1874 buildings and recovered many artifacts either used at the site or among trade goods to trade with the buffalo hunters.

Lake Creek Site

     The Lake Creek Site, located on Lake Creek in Eastern Hutchinson County was excavated by Dr. Jack Hughes in the fall of 1952. Here a woodland occupation dating to approximately 1500 to 2000 years ago was uncovered. No structures were found here, though at sites of similar age in other parts of the Texas Panhandle, pit houses have been found. Arrowheads are corner-notched points, and were probably used in hunting deer.
     The site is located on the J. Evertts Haley Ranch on the west bank of Lake Creek, a tributary of the Canadian River. Here, the Ogallala Formation of Mid-Tertiary age outcrops on many of the high hills. Lake Creek cuts down into the Permian Red Beds as it nears the Canadian River. The main cliff-forming unit which outcrops here is the Alibates Dolostone.
     This encampment was situated on an elevated rise between two smaller drainages, of which Lake Creek proper was flowing at the time of occupation and served as the source of water for the Indians who camped here. Windblown sand now covers the site, perhaps remnants of the dust bowl years of the 1930s or previous episodes of drought on the prehistoric High Plains.
     Lithic materials present on the site include Alibates Flint, Tecovas Jasper, Edwards Plateau Chert, Alibates Dolostone, quartzite, andesite, gneiss, and sandstone. Many of these lithic materials come from the Ogallala basal gravels and were picked up on the surface of the site or from nearby hills by the prehistoric occupants.
     These lithics in turn were fashioned into tools by the early inhabitants. The dolostone was made into basal grinding stones (metates) while some of the sandstone and quartzite was used for upper milling stones (manos). The various flints, jaspers, and cherts were made into edged tools and hunting implements such as arrow points and dart points. Knives, scrapers, gravers, blades and other tools were also formed from these flint-like materials. Hammerstones were formed from a variety of stream cobbles but principally metaquartzite. The andesite and gneiss on the site were also used in this fashion.
     In the excavations, some bones and teeth were uncovered, indicating the use of various animals as food. Among these were bison, deer, jackrabbit, and possibly turkey. The box turtle was also present and may have been a food item, or collected for the shell which might be fashioned into scoops or rattles. In addition, mussel shells, presumably from the Canadian River, were present at the site. To modern palates, the mussel may appear as barely edible, but it is possible these early inhabitants would have different opinions. The shells, themselves, were useful items and could be made into scrapers, or cut up for beads.
     The Lake Creek Site represents the earliest excavations in which a human occupation zone of this age was discovered in the Texas Panhandle. The site was not completely excavated, and future excavations there may uncover pit houses, or other evidence of more settled use.

Fritch Fortress cysts

     In 1981, Meeks Etchieson excavated two small cysts near Fritch Fortress which may have been storage cysts or perhaps pits for firing pottery. These were slab-lined, and showed some evidence of burnt material in the bottom.

Sanford-Yake Rock Shelter

     W. A. Davis placed two test pits in this rock shelter in 1961 but found no artifacts. This rock shelter is located near the United Carbon Carbon-black foundations in the Sanford Yake Area. It is in the bottom of a small arroyo leading into the Canadian River. Water was likely present in the nearby creek bed at this time. There were flint flakes found within the shelter and the ceiling was smoke blackened.

Sanford Yake Flint Workshop

     This site was excavated by W. A. Davis in 1961 and found to be a late prehistoric site of perhaps around 1500. If it is of this late date, it may be an Apache campsite where flint was worked. The Apaches occupied this area in the late prehistoric period until around 1700 when they were replaced by the Comanches. The late date comes from a single Fresno type arrowhead. Other flint objects found here include a piece of a knife and four retouched flakes. A mano and a chopper were found here as well, indicating some food processing on the site.

Additional Resources

The Prehistoric Texas Panhandle
The First Americans from Scientific American's Discovering Archaeology