Blackwater Draw

Blackwater Draw
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark District
Nearest city:	Clovis, New Mexico
Coordinates:	34.277874°N 103.324580°W / 34.277874; -103.324580
Area:	3,200 acres (1,300 ha)
Governing body:	Eastern New Mexico University
NRHP Reference#:	66000483
Significant dates
Added to NRHP:	October 15, 1966
Designated NHLD:	January 20, 1961

Blackwater Draw is a dry stream channel about 140 km (87 mi) long, heading in Roosevelt County, New Mexico, about 7.5 km (5 mi) southwest of Clovis, New Mexico and trending generally southeastward across the Llano Estacado toward the city of Lubbock, Texas, where it joins Yellow House Draw to form Yellow House Canyon at the head of the North Fork Double Mountain Fork Brazos River. It stretches across eastern Roosevelt County, New Mexico and Bailey, Lamb, Hale, and Lubbock counties of West Texas and drains an area of 4,040 km² (1,560 sq mi).

Blackwater Draw contains an important archaeological site that was first recognized in 1929 by Ridgely Whiteman of Clovis, New Mexico. Blackwater Locality No. 1 is the type-site of the Clovis culture. Evidence of "fluted" points, spearheads also known as Clovis points (a New World invention) and other stone and bone weapons, tools, and processing implements were found at the archaeological site. The Clovis points were lanceolate and often longer than Folsom points. These artifacts are in association with the remains of extinct Late Pleistocene megafauna, including Columbian mammoth, camel, horse, bison, sabertooth cat, sloths, and dire wolf that were hunted by the early peoples who visited the site.

The archaeological site is known for its well-defined stratigraphic horizons that exhibit numerous cultural sequences. The sequences begin with the earliest New World peoples and continue through the southwestern archaic, and into the historic period. Investigations at Blackwater Draw have recovered protein residue found on Clovis weapons. This leads to the evidence of human occupation in association with Late Pleistocene fauna, including Columbian mammoth, camel, horse, bison, sabertooth cat and dire wolf. Towards the end of the Pleistocene period, the climate began to change, which brought warmer and drier weather causing the waterflow in the region to dramatically decrease. This decrease caused small seasonal lake basins called playas to form. These areas became popular hunting locations for early North Americans.

Since its discovery, the Blackwater Locality No. 1 site has been a focal point for scientific investigations by academic institutions and organizations from across the country. The Carnegie Institute, Smithsonian Institution, Academy of Natural Sciences, National Science Foundation, United States National Museum, National Geographic Society, and more than a dozen major universities either have funded or participated in research at Blackwater Draw. Eastern New Mexico University owns and manages the excavations and visitations at the site.

Since there is still a lot of opportunity for additional research, and additional public interest, Blackwater Draw was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961 and incorporated into the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.

Blackwater Draw Museum

The Blackwater Draw Museum, was first opened to the public in 1969. The museum opened its doors primarily to display artifacts uncovered at the Blackwater Locality No. 1 Site. The artifacts and displays illustrate life at the site during the Clovis period (over 13,000 years ago) through the recent historic period. This museum is owned and operated by Eastern New Mexico University, and is under the direction of Dr. John Montgomery of ENMU in Portales. The museum is located at 42987 Highway 70, about seven miles northeast of Portales.

See also

• Blanco Canyon
• Blancan
• Eastern New Mexico
• Llano Estacado

• Lubbock Lake Landmark
• Mount Blanco
• Paleo-Indians
• Yellow House Draw

External links

• Blackwater Draw: website
• Blackwater Draw Site: Current research at the Clovis type site
• Blackwater Draw Museum: website