By Emilie Holmes

Eight thousand years ago people who lived in what's now Colorado weren't doing something everyone else around them were: Migrating, traveling or trading with other tribes.

At least, that's what two Utah State University students think — and they're trying to prove it.

Kandus Linde and Christopher Bentley set off last May to collect rock samples Paleoindians used to make tools 8,000 years ago. The samples they collected will soon be compared and analyzed to prove that they came from within 20 miles of the site in Colorado.

USU Professor Bonnie Pitblado, who helped involve Linde and Bentley in her research project, said people who lived that long ago usually traveled hundreds of miles to find food, water and a suitable living habitat as the climate changed. Linde, Bentley and Pitblado think that for some reason this specific group of people had everything they needed within 20 miles of their home.

Linde and Bentley, both USU students last year (Linde has since graduated), became interested in what's called chipped stone analysis (studying rocks used to make tools thousands of years ago) during the 2002-03 school year when they worked for Pitblado.

Pitblado, who was studying the stone from a Paleoindian site near Gunnison, Colo., is a professor in the sociology, social work and anthropology department.

"We were already analyzing material," Linde said. "We knew it would be helpful to be able to see the environment it came from."

Pitblado agreed.

She knew the two had been stuck with what she calls the "drudgery work" for the year and wanted them to carry it through -- see where the specimens were coming from.

"They were interested in the bigger picture," she said. "They'd already seen the small picture -- in labs [at USU]. Now, they wanted to do the fun stuff."

The fun stuff is in an area called Chance Gulch. It's about two and a half miles southeast of Gunnison, below the surface of an 8,000-foot-high plateau.

The area, which is on the western slope of the southern Rocky Mountain Range, underwent its first excavation procedures in 1999. In 2002, USU assumed responsibility for the project — with Pitblado as the project director.

Linde said not only did she and Bentley want to see the area, but also knew they'd have to go to Chance Gulch to write a paper Pitblado had assigned them. They'd researched much of the material Pitblado had brought back from Chance Gulch already, but "didn't have enough to write an actual paper."

"But," Linde said, "we couldn't get there without some help."

With that knowledge, and encouragement from co-workers, professors and other students, the two applied for an Undergraduate Research and Creative Opportunities (URCO) grant.

According to the USU's URCO grant Web site, grants are awarded to USU undergraduate students who want to explore their scholarly, creative or research interests. Sixteen students were awarded the grants during the spring of 2003. The maximum amount awarded for any project is $1,000 -- URCO can give $500 maximum, and the students' supporting department must match whatever amount URCO supplies.

Linde and Bentley applied for the grant and were awarded $450 from URCO in the end. The anthropology department matched that amount.

"They were both very bright and committed students," Pitblado said.

In Pitblado's letter of recommendation she noted that Linde and Bentley were chosen from a pool of over 30 students at the beginning of the year to help with her research.

"So, they were good to start with," she said.

After the grant was awarded and time was spent preparing for the trip, Linde and Bentley visited three source areas in Chance Gulch during their three-day trip.

"It was difficult to find [raw] material that we could remove," she said.

Because of the excavation processes of the previous four years, Lind said the difficulty was actually finding stuff that hadn't been studied or used for other reasons.

"You get to know what it looks like though," she said. "It's fractured in a different way."

The area in mostly sediment -- dirt -- and there aren't many rocks, Pitblado said.

Linde said before the collection processes began, they had to locate the sites and find detailed maps of the area.

"It's not just 'in town,'" she said. "You have to hike around, scour the place."

The excavation site, Pitblado said, is about 100,000 square meters (almost 25 acres).

When Linde and Bentley applied for the grant, their original plan was to collect the material during May and study it and write a research paper during the next three months. Then, they'd present the paper and their research at the Sixth Biennial Rocky Mountain Anthropological Conference in Estes Park, Colo., in September.

The plan didn't go quite that way, though.

"We both took summer jobs as part of a field crew," she said. "Then, Chris moved. So, we've asked for an extension."

Bentley will be back from Northern Arizona University to USU this spring and the two plan to present their research sometime during the spring.

Linde still thinks their hypothesis — that the material gathered is all from within 20 miles of the Gulch -- is true.

"Just looking at it by the naked eye -- it looks comparable," she said.

Once they get the time to actually do the research, Pitblado said they'll be doing a lot of different tests.

"They'll look at the color, texture, the nature of the flakes," she said.

They'll be comparing the rock chips they collected in May to rocks that's original origin has already been determined, she said. One study they'll conduct will be under ultra-violet light.

"If one rock is orange under the light and the other is yellow," she said, "you know they came from different places."

Part of the reason this site has attracted so much attention, Pitblado said, is because many archaeologists think it's hard to live by the mountains.

"Lots of people — not us, because we live by them — think that mountains are bad," she said.

But, she said, she's realized mountains can be good to live by because of the "vertical variability" they have."If you live on the plains, you have to go miles and miles to find things likefood and water," she said. "If you live by mountains, it's all there for you."

But even though the people who lived in Chance Gulch, nestled next to the Rocky Mountains, did have more resources than some of the neighbors, Pitblado said it's still a question as to why they never moved, never traded and never had visitors who brought tools in.

So once Linde and Bentley complete their research -- and it goes as they think it will -- they'll be able to say with more confidence that the Paleoindians who lived in Chance Gulch were able to stay near their home their entire lives.

And then, Pitblado said, another other question will need to be answered.

Why and how exactly were these people such homebodies when never had another site even similar to Chance Gulch produced the same findings?

That will be the next project. Pitblado doesn't know if she'll take it on,
butsomeone will.

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