Abstract

Prehistoric lifeways in the area of the Henry Mountains were poorly understood until reconnaissance and exploration opened this region to research in 1931 and 1932. Interpretation of the data suggested that the area was a sort of cultural depression into which influence had trickled from all directions. Research conducted to the east and to the northwest of the Henry Mountains during the mid-1970s projects a picture of continuous exploitation of the entire area since early Holocene time—radiocarbon dates from cultural material at two sites place man on the scene 8,000 years before the present. The Archaic and later Fremont cultures were adaptations to a drying post-Pleistocene climatic situation, a condition that set the stage for the introduction and acceptance of corn agriculture.

The cultural phenomena known as the Fremont incorporated into their tool kit, in addition to garden farming, the bow and arrow, ceramics, and architecture from the Mesa Verde and Kayenta Anasazi to the south. The semisedentary, horticulturalist mode of subsistence lasted for about 650 years on Bull Creek, an area well known from recent archeological research. As weather patterns shifted and the climate became less conducive to garden agriculture, the population reverted to the hunting and gathering economy noted by the first European explorers.