Prehistoric Occupation in the Colorado Piedmont at Cherokee Ranch

Between 2014 and 2022 Metropolitan State University of Denver conducted survey and excavation field schools on the property of the Cherokee Ranch and Castle Foundation, located near Sedalia, CO in Douglas County. Located in the Platte River Basin, the working ranch consists of prairie on its southern border, which transitions to rolling hills and mesas quickly as you go northward on the property. Having surveyed an area of approximately 780 acres, largely in the plains and rolling hills on the southern boundary of the ranch property. Surveys showed evidence for extensive regular occupation of the area in prehistoric times, and lithic evidence dates the surface sites from the Early Archaic Period up through to the Middle Ceramic Period, and further supported by excavations at a rock shelter on the property, and further extend it into the Protohistoric Period, providing evidence of nearly continuous use of the area from ca. 7,500 BP onward. This presentation analyzes the information recorded from the thirty-one sites and seventy-four isolated finds identified and recorded during the surveys, and discusses possible prehistoric landscape uses of the area.

Caitlin Calvert graduated from Metropolitan State University of Denver with degrees in archaeology and history, and worked for as a CRM archaeologist. Though no longer working in the field, she maintains interest in archaeology, particularly the fields of landscape and historic archaeology.

Host or Publisher The Denver Society of the Archaeological Institute of America