The Bent’s Fort Chapter of the Santa Fe Trail Association is pleased to announce that Dr. Kimberly Munro will give a presentation on the archaeological finds along Chacuco Creek in Las Animas County November 12.  The presentation will be held at the J. W. Rawlings Heritage Center, located at 560 Bent Avenue in Las Animas.  The event will begin at 11:00 a.m. with a Bent’s Fort Chapter meeting followed by lunch.  The presentation will begin at 1:00 p.m. 

Located in Las Animas County along the Chaucaco Creek, the Medina Rockshelter was occupied by Native American groups by at least 7000 BCE.  Dr. Robert Campbell conducted the first scientific archeological investigations at Medina in the 1960s. Campbell’s excavations indicated the earliest evidence of human occupation began in the Archaic period (approximately 7000 years ago). In 2019 a team of researchers from Otero College returned to Chaucaco Creek for three weeks to expand on Campbell’s work. Materials from both the original and most recent field work resulted in a number of lithic, faunal, and wooden artifacts, and numerous ecofacts – such as maize, squash, and wild plum seeds. The land where the Medina Site is located was once part of the Nature Conservancy, however in 2021, the ranch was sold to a private landowner. This paper presents the working results of the 2019 field season, and the logistics of navigating further research within the area during the and "following" the pandemic shutdown and change in ranch ownership.

Kimberly Munro is an Andean archaeologist with over a decade of experience working in Peru. She is the director of the Cosma Archaeological Project, a long-term research project involving excavation and survey in the Andean central highlands, Cordillera Negra Mountains, specifically in the Caceres District of Ancash, Peru.

Kimberly earned a dual B.A. degree in Anthropology and Religious Studies in 2007 from Florida State University and also holds a M.S. in Geography (Geographic Information Sciences) from FSU. She received her PhD in Anthropology from Louisiana State University in 2018. Kimberly currently teaches Anthropology and Archaeology classes and co-directs field work activities in the canyonlands of Southeast, Colorado through Otero College. 

This is a free event open to the public.