National Park Service White Sands U.S. Department of the Interior White Sands National Monument Cultural History of the Tularosa Basin By Peter L. Eidenbach, Human Systems Research At the end of the ice age, 20,000 years ago, Asiatic hunters and gatherers crossed the Bering Land Bridge into Alaska. These early cultures pursued dwindling herds of Pleistocene mammoth, camel, horse, bison and other

now-extinct species into most ©Norm Arnold of North and South America. Historic Fence at the ranch site Fossil footprints left by these huge traditions that spread throughout like deer, mesquite, agave, and animals can still be found on the the west and lasted for the next yucca. alkali flats along the edges of Lake 4,000 to 5,000 years. Lucero. Preserved deposits at Fresnal Beginning 6,000 to 7,000 years Shelter in the Sacremento By 10,000 years ago, early peoples ago, the generalized hunting and Mountains suggest a slow, gradual reached the margins of Lake gathering lifestyle of the “Archaic” increase in the use of agricultural Lucero, then a permanent salt relied on a variety of “life zones”, products. Domesticated species lake. For 1,000 years, these ancient throughout the Basin and Range. became a major contributor to the hunters stalked bison throughout By 5,000 years ago, this adaptation prehistoric diet at least 2,000 years the basin grasslands. Chipped focused on the systematic use ago. stone lance points and other traces of productive ecological zones Dry conditions returned 1,900 of “Folsom” technology are found on a seasonal basis. Indian years ago (A.D. 100) and lasted on the shorelines of ancient lakes ricegrass, the first edible plant 400 to 600 years (A.D. 500-700). and throughout the lowlands of to mature in the region, was Local cultures became dependent the Tularosa Basin. harvested along the edges of upon domesticated crops. Great Lush grasslands and lakes the White Sands by Archaic numbers of people gathered at gradually disappeared as the and subsequent populations, locations of higher agricultural climate became more and more leaving burned gypsum hearths potential, forming semisedentary arid. “Scottsbluff-Eden” tools scattered throughout the . villages. By A.D. 400, small, date to 7,000 to 8,000 years ago, Approximately 4,000 years ago “Hueco Phase” pithouse villages and suggest a more generalized the accelerating drought began to occupied some of these areas. life-style relying on smaller game. stabilize. The earliest appearance About A.D. 700, wetter conditions Scottsbluff-Eden camps and of maize agriculture in the region returned. Small, pottery- hunting sites are often found near dates to this period. producing pithouse villages, the more reliable springs on the identified as the “Mesilla Phase” lower basin floor. Evidence preserved in Late Archaic rock shelters and caves of the Jornada Mogollon, were Aridity continued to increase; shows that wild foods continued established at the mouths of ancient lakes dried up, except to dominate the prehistoric diet. canyons and on the alluvial during the summer monsoon Domesticated maize and beans terraces along the margins of season. Interior basins and played only a minor role. During the basin, where both dryland river valleys were less affected, this time, human populations or floodland agriculture were and hosted slow population remained more concerned with possible. By A.D. 1000, most of the growth, resulting in the “Archaic” exploiting wild native resources, diet consumed by early villagers came from agriculture. By A.D. 1100, populations 1400. However, by the time of Tularosa country, including Pat concentrated at larger villages near Spanish colonization in the mid- Garrett, cowboy poet Eugene major permanent water sources. seventeenth century, nomadic Rhodes, and Oliver M. Lee, whose New technologies improved groups of Athabascan speakers Circle Cross Ranch became the agricultural production. Solar were well established in the local largest in . calendars, irrigation, and new mountains. This “open range” disappeared religious practices helped to Until the nineteenth century, shortly after the turn of the strengthen and focus community frequent raiding on Spanish settle- twentieth century with the new efforts. Two of the largest villages ments in northern Mexico and public land laws. The leasing of built during this period, the Lake the Territory of New Mexico was specific tracts of public lands to Lucero and Huntington sites, lie credited to the Apache. European individuals brought an end to free along the margins of Lake Lucero, colonization in the Tularosa Basin grazing lands and was the first on the western boundary of White was delayed by Apache resistance major step in a shift to a cash- Sands National Monument. until the mid-1800s, although salt based economy. The development A major drought, from A.D. 1276 expeditions to the Lake Lucero of mining and timber industries, to 1299, occurred throughout the alkali flats occasionally ventured and construction of railroads Southwest. For a short period, north from El Paso del Norte dur- and other communication and villages concentrated at more ing the late 18th and early 19th transportation systems, followed reliable water sources. Within century, leaving broken “caretta” rapidly. the next 100 years, for reasons parts scattered along the trail. The ancient salt deposits of Lake as yet unknown, all major village During the 1860s, hispanic New locations in the basin area were Lucero once again attracted atten- Mexicans succeeded in founding tion, and dozens of claims were abandoned. By about A.D. 1350, settlements at the mouths of La the Tularosa Basin was empty after staked, in hopes of a new gypsum Luz and Tularosa Canyons on the industry, which never materialized. an occupation which had lasted eastern edge of the basin floor. nearly 10,000 years. Only one house was ever built with After the Reservation “White Sands Block” in nearby Little is known about the 250 was established in 1873, the Alamogordo. years between the abandonment rapidly expanding Western of these large agricultural villages Frontier brought populations from The Great Depression and and the Spanish Entrada. Jornada the eastern U.S. and western droughts of the 1930s brought the Mogollon peoples may have to the area. frontier era to a close. In the late 1930s, the U.S. Government set remained in the area, altering their Long abandoned agricultural lands aside tracts of land in the central life style and relying on wild native were replowed, and sheep, angora and western portions of the products. goat, and cattle ranching were basin, and White Sands National introduced. Homesteads were Monument was established in These populations may have established to control permanent 1933. By the end of the 1940s, vast been seen by the Spanish in water sources and agricultural areas were designated for defense the region of El Paso. Spanish and grazing lands. Livestock was systems testing as part of present- chroniclers tell of small groups of free to range as far and wide as the day White Sands Missile Range. hunters and gatherers farming on owners could maintain control. a limited basis in the vicinity of Several families in the basin owned small villages of grass or thatched literally thousands of sheep, goats, houses. cattle, and horses. Mescalero Apaches are the The two Lucero brothers, Jose only Native Americans who R. and Filipe, who alternated as occupy the basin today. No sheriffs of Doña Ana county, built evidence indicates that hostile neighboring ranches on the west Athabascan groups (ancestral to side of the old salt lake, giving it its the modern Apache) were present modern name. Many other notable This caretta, part of a horse drawn wagon, to force the abandonment of historic figures homesteaded was found in the dunes in 1973. agricultural villages before A.D. and ranched this newly opened Revised 12/20/15