Murray Springs Clovis Site - Sierra Vista, Arizona
Posted by: 
BruceS
N 31° 34.267 W 110° 10.913
12R E 577634 N 3493189
Archeological site with interpretive trail and signs listed as a National Historic Landmark located east of Sierra Vista, Arizona.
Waymark Code: WMHEQG
Location: Arizona, United States
Date Posted: 07/01/2013
Views: 9
"The Murray Springs Clovis Site is a nationally significant archeological property consisting of a 13,000 year old Paleoindian mammoth kill, a bison kill, and an associated campsite. It is located along Curry Draw, an arroyo in the western Chihuahuan Desert in southeastern Arizona. The site meets National Historic Landmark (NHL) Criterion 6 because it has yielded and may be likely to yield information of major scientific importance about Paleoindian life ways, adaptation subsistence strategies and the mega faunal extinctions at the end of the Pleistocene Epoch. The site has a very high level of integrity and includes some of the best archeological evidence in North America of early humans and extinct mammals. Distinctive Clovis spear points have clearly identified the occupants of this site as part of the earliest well-documented culture in the Americas. As noted in the National Park Service’s Earliest Americans Theme Study (NPS 2005), Paleoindian sites are among the rarest and most threatened cultural resources in the nation.
The site is located about seven miles east of Sierra Vista in southeastern Arizona. When Paleoindian hunters lived and hunted here millennia ago, the area was grassland, and the kill component of the site was a muddy, spring-fed water hole dug by mammoths and used by species of now-extinct horses, bison, camels and lions. The site was excavated between 1966 and 1971; artifact collections, field notes, maps and associated records are curated at the Arizona State Museum in Tucson. Today, the site is within the San Pedro Riparian National
Conservation Area (SPRNCA) and managed by the Bureau Land Management (BLM). The trail through the site offers interpretive exhibits that are enjoyed and appreciated by tourists and scientists from around the world.
The site has yielded some of the best archeological evidence of early humans and extinct mammals ever found on the continent. The wealth of data obtained from this late Pleistocene archeological site has vastly contributed to the scientific understanding of Paleoindian lifeways, adaptations, and subsistence strategies. Although partially excavated, the site still retains a high level of archeological integrity." - National Historic Landmark Nomination
The coordinates listed are for the trailhead for the interpretive trail leading into the site.
Visit Instructions:
To post a visit log to this waymark you need to visit and write about the actual physical location. Any pictures you take at the location would be great, as well.