Archaeology & Preservation Webinar Series

Between the Peaks: Archaeology of the Tahosa Creek Site

In the summer of 2018, History Colorado’s Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation with assistance from Metcalf Archaeological Consultants, Inc., members of the Colorado Archaeological Society, and students from the Colorado School of Mines excavated the Tahosa Creek Site (5LR647).

The site at High Peak Camp, which the Salvation Army owns, and is situated between Roosevelt National Forest and Rocky Mountain National Park south of Estes Park in Larimer County. The site is a multi-component, open-air camp site on a rise along the edge of the Tahosa Creek floodplain. Occupations appear to have been sporadic and temporary but possibly extended from the Late Paleoindian through the Proto- to Early Post-Contact. The results suggest that that this portion of Tahosa Valley served as a corridor between the foothills area to the east and the higher alpine meadows such as those in Rocky Mountain National Park and that the site represents a stop on the passage between the two.