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Colorado dig at dam site running out of time, money
By ROBERT SANCHEZ
The Denver Post
PARKER, Colo. — Amid the weedy expanse that soon will become this growing town’s reservoir, Erik Gantt and his archaeological crew are fighting a battle against time.
The group from Fort Collins-based Centennial Archaeology Inc. was invited to Douglas County nearly a year ago to investigate findings that ancient people lived at the creek site southwest of Parker for thousands of years, building homes, creating artistic objects and hunting food.
But budget overruns due to time-consuming discoveries on the Rueter-Hess Reservoir land have prompted the Army Corps of Engineers to ask that archaeologists abandon the 6,500-year-old site early next month.
Bulldozers would shovel dirt over sites that have already yielded some of Colorado’s oldest pottery and what may be a one-of-a-kind kiln. …
Because only 1 percent to 2 percent of the site was excavated, meaning more money would be needed, town officials argued that a cap should be put on the work. …
But if the archaeologists pack up next month and rebury dig areas, the decision could add to a continuing nationwide debate over whether public needs should trump preservation of prehistoric finds. …
“There are complex deposits all along (Rueter-Hess) that you simply couldn’t have planned for,” said Larry Todd, an anthropology professor at Colorado State University. “If your only concern is economics, then it’s impossible to argue against.
“But everyone involved here has to know that you’re dealing with an irreplaceable, nonrenewable piece of history.”
The site was home to prehistoric people that lived there 6,500 years ago to about 1,800 years ago. The oldest artifacts predate Egypt’s pyramids by more than 3,000 years and Plato’s teachings in Greece by more than 6,000 years.
A different project —
Ah, Wilderness!: study area under water within a few years
A team from SWCA Environmental Consultants is wrapping up four years of investigations this summer because the Animas-La Plata Project, a settlement of American Indian water-right claims, will leave the study area under water within a few years.