Prehistoric Stone Structures in the San Luis Valley

Over the past few years, we (Becky Donlan and Ken Frye, among others) have located many stone structures in the Valley believed to have various uses, spiritual, boundary markers, location markers, look out points, etc. Some were relocated using old site forms completed over 25 years ago, some were from word of mouth from the discoverers, and others were located by a team of dedicated searchers. For example, one area north of Del Norte yielded about 20 previously unknown structures. Another area west of Saguache yielded 15 structures of various sizes and shapes. Below are approximately 15 habitation structures, with many flakes and broken artifacts observed. Ceremonial structures are often observed near habitation structure complexes.

Small stacked stone structure photo by Ken Frye & Becky Donlan Native American Research & Preservation, Inc.

Double stone cairns photo by Ken Frye & Becky Donlan Native American Research & Preservation, Inc.

Stone enclosure photo by Marvin Goad

"Four Feathers" cairn photo by Ken Frye & Becky Donlan Native American Research & Preservation, Inc.

Aligned cairns photo by Ken Frye & Becky Donlan Native American Research & Preservation, Inc.

Pyramidal cairn photo by Ken Frye & Becky Donlan Native American Research & Preservation, Inc.

Also, we are looking to revive the Network, and one suggested project is to hike ridges, hills, knolls, high mesas above the Valley floor and look for stone structures, associated features and artifacts. We recently revisited a known site southwest of Capulin and found five new stone structures that we hadn't noticed before. It takes a trained eye to find these structures. They can be one to two meters wide or many meters wide, depending on what they were used for. We suspect there could be hundreds more of these structures in the Valley foothills and high, alpine country. Some people hiking in the Sangre de Cristos recently reported some structures in the Venable Pass area that are located at about 13,000 feet in elevation. Another survey above Creede yielded several cairns and stone circles at over 12,000 in elevation, so one never knows where they may be located.

Multi-room stone habitation structure photo by Ken Frye & Becky Donlan Native American Research & Preservation, Inc.

Habitation structure on the Rio Grande photo by Ken Frye & Becky Donlan Native American Research & Preservation, Inc.

Semicircular stone structure photo by Ken Frye & Becky Donlan Native American Research & Preservation, Inc.

Habitation structure photo by Marvin Goad

Top of Page

Click for Membership Form

HOME