The Archaeology of Woods Canyon Pueblo

Acknowledgments

The electronic publication of this report and its accompanying database was made possible by the financial contributions, practical assistance, and moral support of many individuals and institutions. First, I would like to thank the hundreds of lay participants in Crow Canyon's research and education programs who worked at Woods Canyon Pueblo from 1994 through 1996. They played a major role in both the field and the laboratory, assisting with test excavation and artifact analysis, and they contributed significantly to the funding of the research through their tuition. We could not have completed the project without their help, and the long days in the field and laboratory certainly would not have been as enjoyable for the staff without their enthusiastic participation.

The ongoing financial support of Crow Canyon's Board of Trustees, Life Benefactors, President's Circle members, Legacy Society members, and Chairman's Council members was essential to the success of the Woods Canyon project. The following individuals served as board members at various times during the eight years that encompassed fieldwork, lab research, manuscript preparation, and publication: Sue Anschutz-Rodgers (chair, 2000–present), Betsy M. Alexander, Charmay B. Allred, Richard G. Ballantine, George W. Bermant, Margaret T. Bixler, Albert G. Boyce, Jr., Gene M. Bradley, Frank Cicero, Jr., John L. Colonghi, Robert W. Cox, Richard A. Davis, Raymond T. Duncan (chair, 1985–1992), Wendy Fisher, Peggy V. Fossett, Robert D. Greenlee, Bruce A. Grimes, Anne B. Grunau, William J. Huff, C. Paul Johnson (chair, 1992–1998), Emily H. King, Karl F. Kumli III, Thomas P. Lanagan, Charles R. Larimore, Stephen H. Lekson, Ricky R. Lightfoot, William D. Lipe, Mark O. L. Lynton, Jack A. MacAllister, James M. McCaffery, W. Bruce Milne, Peter M. Pino, Nancy Clark Reynolds (chair, 1998–2000), Burton R. Rissman, Michael D. Searle, Stuart Struever, Sidney J. Taylor (deceased), Scott R. Tipton, Gomer W. Walters (deceased), Gordon P. Wilson, and J. Stanley Yake.

Crow Canyon's research committee is made up of a group of particularly dedicated supporters whose insights, advice, and financial support proved invaluable over the course of the project. Thank you to committee members Sue Anschutz-Rodgers, Robert Bryant, Delia Chilgren, Jane Dillard, Sandra Edwards, Sidney Edwards, George Feldman, Timothy Finlay, Charles Fischer, Carole Gardner, Charlotte Gibson, David Gibson, Leslie Goodwill-Cohen, John Hopkins, William J. Huff, Kenneth Kinsman, William D. Lipe, Robin Lyle, Pat Lyttle, Neil McCallum, Lois Minium, Tito Naranjo, Stuart Patterson, Pete Peterson, Howard Poe, Nancy Clark Reynolds, Burton R. Rissman, Richard Schott, Irene Schulze, Donald Sprague, Porter Stone, Nancy Todd, Larry Tradlener, Sandy Tradlener, Ernest M. Vallo, Sr., Marta Wallace, Gomer W. Walters (deceased), Ronald White, Sharon White, Robert Wickham, and Gordon P. Wilson.

I also wish to thank members of Crow Canyon's Native American advisory group for sharing their thoughts on Woods Canyon Pueblo during a site tour in October 2000. The afternoon that we spent together provided me and other Crow Canyon archaeologists with a wonderful opportunity to view the site from the perspective of those who trace their ancestry back to the Pueblo peoples of the Four Corners area. Special thanks to advisory group members Marie Reyna and Ernest M. Vallo, Sr., for reviewing a draft of this manuscript. Ernest also shared with me his knowledge of Pueblo water-control features and agricultural practices, information that I found very helpful when writing the chapter on water control and subsistence.

Partial funding for the production of the electronic site report and database was provided by a State Historical Fund grant from the Colorado Historical Society. The digitizing of color photographs for inclusion in the database was partly funded by a grant from the University of Denver (Colorado Digitization Project) and by a grant from the Ballantine Family Fund. The support of these institutions is greatly appreciated.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, San Juan Resource Area office, in Durango, Colorado, granted Crow Canyon permission to conduct test excavations at Woods Canyon Pueblo under the Archaeological Resource Protection Act. The support of Calvin Joyner, manager of the San Juan Public Lands Center, and Kristie Arrington, former resource area archaeologist, was essential to the success of the project. Special thanks to Kristie, who worked closely with us and provided both advice and encouragement. Thanks, too, to the Anasazi Heritage Center, Dolores, Colorado, especially director LouAnn Jacobson, for its ongoing support of Crow Canyon's research effort. The Heritage Center staff is always accommodating of our requests to use collections and records and has been a valued partner for many years.

Numerous fellow Crow Canyon staff members contributed many hours and much hard work to the Woods Canyon project. Stephen H. Lekson, Bruce A. Grimes, and Ricky R. Lightfoot served as president at different times during the project and provided important leadership and vision. William D. Lipe, former research director and current board member, produced an excellent map of the surface architecture at the site that served as the basis for our sampling strategy. Bill also provided invaluable advice and support throughout the project. His successor as research director, Richard Wilshusen, developed the initial research design for Woods Canyon Pueblo and served as project director in 1994 and 1995; his passion and determination helped get the project off to a good start. Special thanks to Ian "Sandy" Thompson, who served as research director after Richard. Sandy was thoughtful, insightful, realistic, and incredibly supportive of the staff. He passed away before the completion of the Woods Canyon Pueblo project, but it was his vision that in no small measure shaped the electronic publication series of which this report is a part. Crow Canyon's current research director, Mark Varien, essentially served as the codirector of the Woods Canyon Pueblo project, and he deserves special recognition for refining our research goals, conducting a large portion of the fieldwork, and providing valuable guidance and feedback throughout the preparation of the report. I couldn't have done it without him.

Many thanks are due the hardworking field staff, including field assistants Jeff Blomster, Jim Potter, and Brian Brownholtz, and field interns Wes Bernardini, Lara Rooke, Liz Klarich, Tatum McKay, and Marit Munson. Field volunteers also put in a lot of time, helping with projects such as tree-ring coring, end-of-season documentation, and—way above and beyond the call of duty—the removal of a dead cow from an excavation unit. Special thanks to volunteers Rex Adams, Kristie Arrington, Nan Carman, Jennifer Cerny, Donna Glowacki, Sarah Jacobson, Katharine Rainey, Dylan Schwindt, and Dana Wickner. The Crow Canyon educators provided excellent instruction to program participants, not to mention indispensable field assistance, and their unflagging patience and good humor was greatly appreciated. Thanks to director of education Elaine Davis and staff educators Margie Connolly, Paul Ermigiotti, Sara Kelly, Tim Ketchum, Kenneth Lanik, Tony Littlejohn, Lew Matis, Andrea Parkes, and Robert Wagner—you're great teachers. Crow Canyon's maintenance staff made field tools, hauled heavy equipment, and backfilled excavation units at the end of the project. Special thanks to Joel Pernot and Thomas Comisky for helping us set up at the beginning of each field season and wrapping up at the end.

My fellow archaeologists on the research staff provided much-appreciated support and counsel throughout the preparation of this manuscript for publication. Christine Ward and Susan Ryan entered enormous amounts of field data into the electronic database, information which served as the basis for the interpretations presented here. Office-mate Kristin Kuckelman served as a sounding board for ideas, offered alternative viewpoints, and was instrumental in developing the reporting format used in both the interpretive chapters and the database. She, in addition to researchers Scott Ortman, Andrew Duff, Susan Ryan, and Mark Varien, reviewed various early drafts of this report, as did members of the education staff.

The research laboratory staff deserves special recognition for processing, analyzing, and managing the artifacts and documentation from the Woods Canyon Pueblo project. Melita Romasco was the lab director during most of the time that the Woods Canyon artifacts and paper records were being processed. Scott Ortman served as material culture specialist before succeeding Melita as lab director. Thanks also to material culture specialist Christopher Pierce; collections manager Jamie Merewether; database manager Carole Graham; lab educator Lew Matis; laboratory assistants Adele Bigler, Bonnie Hildebrand, Joseph Keleher, Robin Lyle, and Maggie Thurs; and numerous lab interns and volunteers.

Several specialists and consultants provided us with valuable information that helped us focus our research and better interpret the archaeological record. In a visit to the site before we began excavating, Hopi elders Walter Hamana, Ambrose Namoki, and Harold Polingyumptewa helped us identify and interpret surface remains. Doug Ramsey, a soil scientist for the National Resources Conservation Service, shared his expertise about water management and soil deposition related to water-control features. Physical anthropologist Sali Underwood assisted Cynthia Bradley in analyzing human skeletal remains.

Several individuals have greatly improved the graphics in this publication and the accompanying database. Neal Morris taught the field staff how to use a total station, and he drafted the excellent AutoCAD maps. Charles "Pete" Peterson volunteered his time to create the superb artist's reconstruction of the rim complex that appears in "Architecture and Site Layout," and Bill Proud granted us permission to include two of his very fine photographs of Woods Canyon Pueblo in the electronic photo database (photos 7492 and 7493). Thanks also to Bonnie Hildebrand, who performed the painstaking job of digitizing hundreds of field and laboratory photographs for this same database.

The digital format of this on-line publication and the accompanying database was developed by numerous individuals, including members of Crow Canyon's research, publications, information systems, and education departments. Deserving of special recognition are former lab director Melita Romasco, director of information systems Lee Gripp, and director of publications Louise Schmidlap, who together worked on the behind-the-scenes structure and coding that allow the reader to navigate the interpretive report and retrieve information from the database. Louise was particularly instrumental in developing the "look" of the user interfaces that constitute the on-line publications. And, finally, computer consultants Lynn Udick and Art Rohr (AnthroBase) were invaluable partners in this enterprise, not only helping Crow Canyon envision the final product, but also providing much-needed technical support in the development of the database specifically.

The publications staff did a fine job preparing this report for on-line publication. Mary Etzkorn, as managing editor, helped guide the manuscript through the writing, review, and editing phases of the project; this report would not have been published without her dedication and commitment. Thanks to freelance copy editor Anne Marshall Christner for her close read of text and to staff members Ginnie Dunlop and Sandy Tradlener for the many hours they spent on various aspects of production. Ginnie produced the very fine color graphs found throughout the report; Sandy formatted the tables, generated the references cited lists, and converted the text to HTML. And, finally, Louise Schmidlap supervised the entire production process, ensuring that the on-line presentation adhered to high professional standards.

Click here for a detailed list of staff and interns who worked on the Woods Canyon Pueblo project.