More Fossil Teeth

Finding fossilized horse teeth in the small arroyo was quite a surprise, see previous post.  But another question arose, did these teeth erode out from their original depositional position or were they the result of landscape remodeling?  The fresh breaks on some of the teeth suggested a scenario where the animal died and was covered, followed by a period of mineralization.  The fossilized skeletal remains were then at some point uncovered and moved by environmental forces followed by another period of soil build up which left them where rain would eventually uncover them.  To test this question another trip was required.  This time to remove loose unconsolidated soil from the area where the teeth were found in an effort to locate additional embedded fossilized teeth.  Using a hand brush, the loose sandy soil was removed along the arroyo and in an area between 2 small drainages.  Under a pile of twig and sand debris another tooth was found embedded in the harder soil that lay beneath.  This soil layer also had embedded twigs indicating it was not an old surface but rather was redeposited in the recent past.  Carefully isolating the tooth by removing this harder soil completely uncovered the fragment tooth which was sitting on the hard pan subsoil characteristic of many heavily eroded areas around the estate.  After stabilizing the tooth fragment it was matched with one previously recovered, see image below.  The orientation of this tooth fragment in the soil was also consistent with redeposition.  The top of tooth was pointing uphill and the flat mineralized surface along the jaw line was in a vertical position not horizontal.  The position of this horse tooth fragment also indicates the leaf shaped point found close by was most likely a spurious association and the result of environmental forces.

Another tooth found after brushing away loose the loose sandy soil, note the twig impression at the bottom suggesting redeposition.

Newest tooth fragment fitted to another tooth.

Under surface of fossil horse teeth showing a flat mineralized surface from the original depositional environment.

Hard pan sub soil upon which rested the newest fossilized tooth.

Paleontology at the Painted Pony Resort: A Fossil Horse

It was just another morning out on the landscape.  This particular morning was spent repairing the one rock check dams along Painted Pony Road after the recent monsoon season.  The one rock check dams are small single rows of rocks placed at intervals across a drainage to prevent enlargement and to trap sediment allowing grasses a place to root.  This has the added benefit of protecting the road and preventing washouts during heavy rains.  So while awaiting the arrival of some prospective clients who were coming by to view the Painted Pony Resort as a location for a planned workshop, check dam maintenance along the road seemed like an easy job.  Stopping at each check dam in turn and adding rocks was going smoothly when I noticed an oddly shaped rock in one drainage.  Walking over I picked it up and noticed immediately is was not just a rock but rather fossilized teeth in a partial matrix of rock.  Noting the location it was back to check dam maintenance.  After finishing the maintenance chores and after the prospective clients left, it was back to look for more fossilized teeth.  After finding several more examples and a partial rib, all within a 10 ft radius, it was back to the estate for identifications.  After stabilizing the finds, which were in generally poor condition, a detailed examination and comparison to identified specimens suggests the fossilized teeth are from a horse (Equus sp. possibly E. scotti or E. mexicanus).  The rock matrix surrounding the teeth and rib fragment are indicators that the animal was not a member of the re-introduced modern horses that arrived with the Europeans but rather something older.  Horses originally evolved in North America but became extinct in the western hemisphere about 12,000 years ago.  In addition, horse bones have been found in multiple Clovis sites including the southwest (1, 2, 3) and human hunting pressure leading to the demise of the horse as a species in North America cannot be ruled out (4).

Fossilized horse teeth and rib fragment.

Locations of horse teeth (red circles) and bifacial leaf shaped projectile point (blue circle).  The water flow is indicated with black lines and the direction is from bottom to top of the image.

During the second walk of the area, a projectile point turned up within 10 feet (3 m) of the first tooth find at the same elevation.  A small leaf shaped bifacial projectile point measuring 25 x 16 x 3 mm, it was clearly different from other projectile points previously found in the area but clearly to small to have brought down an animal with teeth several inches long.  A search of Overstreet's typology database turned up a single similarly designed point, a cottonwood leaf found from Arizona to Nevada and California dating from 700-400 B.P. suggesting a spurious association.  With the denuded grasslands in the area combined with yearly monsoons spurious associations are always a possibility as material washes out and is transported by the rains.  As a test, an area of 10,000 square feet was carefully walked looking for other artifacts, see image below.  If the leaf shaped point was associated with the animal teeth then there should be no other artifacts close.  If on the other hand the leaf shaped projectile point was not associated with the teeth and the association was the result of chance there should be other artifacts close.  Nothing was found west of the road (up dip), while a single small red rhyolite bifacial scraper was found about 70 feet to the northeast (and down dip).  To the south 2 partial manos and a metate fragment were found about 80 feet from the teeth and about 50 ft apart.  While to the east a large crude chert unifacial scraper was found downstream of the teeth about 40 ft away.  Finally, a used chert flaking core was discovered 125 ft slightly southeast of the teeth.  Since the dip is to the east all exposed artifacts tend to be downstream of their original deposition sites and the lighter the material the further it will have moved over time if exposed.  Based on these observations, it suggests the leaf shaped bifacial point and teeth are associated and the find is not a spurious association.  Yet the question remains why such a small unusually shaped projectile point? Conflicting evidence and questions as yet unanswered, it will have to remain a mystery until further material comes to light.

leaf shaped point found within 10 ft of the fossilized teeth.

The other side of the leaf shaped bifacial projectile point.  Note the long overshot flaking scare running diagonally across the face, an unusual feature.

Distribution of artifacts in relationship to the discovery of fossil horse teeth in satellite imagery.  Down slope (dip) is to the right.

Addendum:  Examples of other leaf shaped projectile points from New Mexico may be found here.

Oktoberfest in Portal AZ

Late October in Cave Creek Canyon and with the colors changing in the Chiricahua mountains it was time for Oktoberfest in Portal.  Saturday morning broke clear as local participants began to gather in Portal for another Oktoberfest celebration.  Sponsored by the Sew What Club of Portal and benefiting the clubs scholarship program local vendors set up their tables and the silent auction featured baskets filled with goodies based on a variety of themes. Grilled brots, German potato salad, and home made sour kraut were on the menu for lunch as well as home baked goodies were for sale.  This years crowd was even larger and parking spilled over out of Portal and into Portal Rescues parking lot up the hill.  With families and dogs it was a great way to enjoy a nice fall day in the canyon with change in colors in full swing.  A slideshow of images from Oktoberfest may be found on the Portal, AZ - Rodeo, NM website and at Chiricahua Sky Island, Rodeo.

Saturday morning at Oktoberfest in cave creek canyon.

Lunch was brots on the grill.

Adventures in Welding

To survive down here requires a good deal self reliance and multiple plans for every aspect of ones life.  The newest learning experience involved the tractor and a tooth bar.  Recently, the owner of the Painted Pony Resort generously replaced the old tractor with a new one.  Unfortunately, the sales representative at the dealer gave the owner the wrong size for the front loading bucket and the tooth bar shipped was to long.  Sending back over a hundred pounds of metal was not in the works, so alternate planning started.  Plan A involved grinding and fitting the tooth bar on the outside of the bucket instead of the inside, as designed, but after a days grinding it was clear that Plan A was not viable, so on to Plan B.  Plan B involved cutting the tooth bar and removing a section so it would fit inside the bucket as designed, but this plan required not only cutting and grinding, but welding.  Like backhoes, welders seem to be standard issue in the Boot Heel of New Mexico and I had purchased a used Miller Thunderbolt locally awhile back in anticipation of its need at some point in time.  Clearly a good decision, but only one problem, experience welding was required and this was lacking.  So off to the internet for some research.  After a couple of days of reading and watching videos the welder was turned on and a weld attempted on scrap metal.  Well, as you can imagine, the initial attempts produced miserable results.  It was impossible to start a bead, the rod kept sticking to the base plate, the amperage was not adjusted correctly, the wrong drag angle, on and on.  But persistence payed off and after researching each problem in turn it was possible to complete a weld on scrap metal.  Emboldened, a broken tine on the tractor rake was successfully welded, so it was on to the tooth bar.  After cutting, shortening, and beveling the new seam, 3 passes on each side with the arc welder and there was a new custom fitted tooth bar on the tractor.  A little splatter but no worm holes and of course the mistake of moving to fast but the job was finished.  While the job took days to complete and which would have taken an experienced metal worker about 30 minutes to finish, the blame for the excessive time took on this job may be laid at the foot of the bubble.  Now the tractor is ready for grubbing mesquites in the seed reservoir as part of the grassland restoration.

Incorrectly sized tooth bar in the tractor bucket.

Cut and welded tooth bar installed in the new tractor.

The Rustic Cabin at the Painted Pony Resort

The Painted Pony Resort expansion is proceeding with the remodeling of a 3 bedroom, one bath rustic cabin on the new property.  A roof to floor renovation started in early June and is nearing completion bringing the total number of available bedrooms to 12 on the property.  This will provide additional resources for guests with large groups or rented separately for couples and families wishing a base of operations for excursions into the Chiricahua and Peloncillo mountains.  The rustic cabin has no telephone, TV, or internet and is the perfect spot for those seeking additional seclusion when visiting the area.

Placing the cabin in context in relation to those who lived on the landscape previously is always an interesting undertaking and during breaks in remodeling, walking the property always brings to light new evidence of the former inhabitants.  The cabin sits on a low ridge between an abandoned drainage from Cave Creek canyon overlooking the San Simon riverbed in the seed reservoir.  This finger of land jutting into the riverbed was favored by former inhabitants as evidenced by a number of metates (broken fragments and whole metates) found around the cabin as well as other stone tools including projectile points and an 18" stone pestle.  This low ridge was ideal for inhabitants, providing high ground for living yet close to the river bottom for farming activities.  Evidence of 15 different metates (2 whole and 13 fragments) were recovered from the low ridge around the cabin.  All surface finds and appear to be simple type 1 metates with little or no outside modifications with wear patterns suggesting seasonal or short term use, 1" wear or less. 

The Painted Pony Resort showing the rustic cabin location

New gate and entrance to the rustic cabin at PPR

The cabin at the Painted Pony Resort

Warm Weather Grass Species in the Painted Pony Resort Seed Reservoir

The Grassland Restoration Project continues at the Painted Pony Resort with the identification of warm weather grass species on the property.  A restoration ecologist, John Moeny, from Silver City stopped by the Painted Pony Resort to identify grass species in newly fenced seed reservoir.  Being a biologist it is often assumed I know plant and animal species, but the reverse is actually true.  I know little of botany and can not do much better than "tree, bush, and shrub" and in this case "grass".  As a molecular geneticist I was always more comfortable at bench work rather than work in the field, so the presence of a restoration ecologist with specialized knowledge was an immense asset to the project.  The 2 of us spent the better part of the morning and early afternoon out in San Simon River bed and on the benches surrounding the river bottom looking at different grass species.  John identified 13 different species of native grass on the property and passed along advice on how to restore the highly eroded areas where the top soil has blown away as a result of excessive grazing activity.  Below is a list of grass species identified at the Painted Pony Resort.

River bottom grass species:

1.  Tobosa grass (Pleuraphis mutica) - The most common grass in the river bed and covers the majority of the river bed. 

2.  Vine mesquite grass (Panicum obtusum)

3.  Giant Sacaton (Sporobolus wrightii)

4.  Windmill grass (Chloris vivgata)

5.  Cane bluestem (Bothrichloa barbinodis)

Upland grass species:

6.  Sideoats grama (Bouteloua curtipendula)

7.  Black grama (Bouteloua eriopoda)

8.  Bush muhly (Muhlenbergia porteri)

9.  Bistle grass (Setaria sp.)

10.  Dropseed (Sporobolus contractus)

11.  Galleta grass (Pleuraphis jamesii)

12.  6 weeks threeawn (Aristida adscensionis)

13.  6 weeks grama (Bouteloua barbata)

No Lehman's lovegrass, an introduced and invasive species, was observed on the property. 

There were also large swaths of pigweed (Amaranthus sp.) on the east side of the river bottom which may demarcate previously tilled areas, but grasses were found growing between the weeds.

Winterfat, a native shrub and a favorite of grazers, was present on the benches above the river bottom and is a good indicator that fencing the river bottom is already having an effect.  Finally, it should be noted that this census represents only the warm weather species and identification of the cool weather grass species will have to wait until spring.

Turquoise at the Painted Pony Resort

While working over at the Rustic Cabin at the Painted Pony Resort, insulating pipes running from the well to the pressure tank in preparation for winter, some color on the ground caught my eye.  Small flecks of green and blue rock which were scattered about on the river bed bench top where the cabin sits attracted my attention.  Finishing the pipe insulation job, I began to look around for more and hunting for the source.  Walking in widening circles around the pump area I found more and more small fragments (1-2 mm) of turquoise.  Eventually coming upon an abandoned animal burrow I noticed lying in the dirt spoils created by the animal during digging, a larger (several inch) piece of rust colored matrix with veins of turquoise running through it.  Found it I thought, it was apparent this bright blue turquoise was not native to an alluvial bench along San Simon River bed but more likely imported by a former inhabitant.  The presence of fragments from a dozen different metates found around the cabin suggest this bench top was inhabited in the past and the presence of turquoise was just one more indicator of a habitation site.  Two locations within several days walk have a history of turquoise production, the Johnny Bull mine the mines around old Hachita which are respectively 17 and 33 miles distant are possible sources, but this does not exclude the possibility of closer unknown sources. 

Bright blue turquoise in matrix.

Another Sunrise in New Mexico

Frequently, work starts before sunrise so there is an opportunity to watch the San Simon Valley landscape move from darkness to light as another days work at the Painted Pony Resort begins.  It is just a matter of stepping out the door to watch this change move over the landscape and it is always different.  While other New Mexican sunrises have been posted a particularly spectacular sunrise was captured the other week.  Although only about 9 miles wide at the Painted Pony Resort (7 miles wide at Rodeo) the San Simon Valley can display dramatically different characteristics from east to west across the valley.  On the west side of the valley a low lying fog bank, over 1000' thick, obscured the lower flanks of the Chiricahua mountains down to the valley floor, visually illustrating the concept of sky islands.  While the reverse view was the rising sun with only a hint of low lying fog in the San Simon river bed.  Low clouds illuminated by the rising sun combined with visible shafts of sunlight radiating outward made it a particularly memorable morning and illustrating this difference in weather that may be experienced within the confines of the valley.

The view west towards Portal Peak and the Chiricahua mountains

The reverse view of the sunrise through Antelope pass in the Peloncillo mountains

The Cowboy Cookout at the Painted Pony Resort

The preparation for the guests cowboy dinner paid off when the time arrived for the cookout.  Jerry and Jennifer from La Buena Vida farm arrived in the afternoon and began preparations for the cowboy cookout.  The prepared cooking fire segment of the fire pit was just the right size for the grill stand and soon mesquite fire was blazing to prepare coals for cooking.  The guests began to trickle over to watch the activity and to tell Jerry how they wished their steaks prepared.  The dinner included a fresh salad from greens grown at La Buena Vida farm, a corn pieda cooked in a dutch oven, fresh farm baked bread, baked potatoes, T-bone steaks from locally raised cattle, and for dessert, an apple crisp also cooked in a dutch oven.  Everyone gathered around the fire pit to eat dinner and as sunset approached the second fire (separate from the cooking fire) was started.

After the meal, out came the fireworks and an impromptu fireworks show happened on the runway.  As the evening progressed the guests slowly trickled away from the fire back to the hanger for another evening of astronomy and astrophotography.  All around, the guests enjoyed a lovely dinner and evening around the campfire.

Jerry and Jennifer of La Buena Vida Farm

Cooking on the fire

Guests serving up their cowboy steaks

The El Paso and Southwestern Railroad

Rodeo New Mexico was served by the railroad at one time.  Founded in 1901, the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad ran from Tucson to El Paso servicing the mines in Bisbee and the smelter in Douglas.  A number of small towns and sidings sprang up including Rodeo which was initially founded by the railroad in 1902.  But the railroad eventually passed like many things.  Its demise in the early 1960's saw the removal of the tracks leaving only the rail bed and bridges along the former route.  The stations remained in several small towns but many of these slowly disappeared, giving way to neglect and decay.

Below is an image of one bridge north of Rodeo NM along the abandoned El Paso and Southwestern Railroad line.  Spanning a drainage from the western slopes of the Peloncillo mountains, this desaturated image reflects the stark reality of a decaying concrete bridge sitting alone in the high New Mexican desert.  More on the history of the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad may be found here.

A railroad bridge north of Rodeo

A Cowboy Cookout

Some guests wish a western experience when visiting the Painted Pony Resort, while others are seeking to experience the outdoors and interact with nature in the high desert and mountains of southwest New Mexico and southeast Arizona.  Whatever the reason a cowboy cookout is a nice addition to a visit.  La Beuna Vida Farm offers such an experience and the current guests decided to take advantage of the opportunity and add a western touch to their astronomy visit.

That meant creating an area suitable for a cowboy campfire for cooking and dining on the property.  A large open flat area just east of the main complex was chosen and between the tractor and a shovel a 6' diameter pit was created.  Stone to surround the fire pit came from the foundation of the old homestead by the riverbed that dates back to at least 1917.  Seating was created out of 2 x 12" planks secured to sections of oak logs.  During discussions of the fire pit arrangement with the owner of La Beuna Vida farm, it was brought to my attention that the fire pit was much larger than necessary for cooking, so the fire pit is divided into 2 areas.  One end is raised creating a specific area for a cooking fire (making it easier on the cook) while the rest of the fire pit will remain for non-cooking fires.

A double deck fire pit for cooking and entertaining.