The discoverer of the site where the Folsom Point was found, and the question of how long man has been in the Americas was (somewhat) resolved, was a former slave/black cowboy from Texas.
He knew he found a special site, but died before the excavation and discovery of the Folsom Point.
Good article about him in Texas Monthly
https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-culture/texans-you-should-know-how-a-black-cowboys-discovery-changed-the-field-of-archaeology/
If you ever head from Amarillo into SE Colorado in the summer, take some extra time and go through Folsom. Stunningly beautiful part of New Mexico, especially the drive across Johnson Mesa on NM72. Iff you have lots of time, check out the local museum.
He knew he found a special site, but died before the excavation and discovery of the Folsom Point.
Good article about him in Texas Monthly
https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-culture/texans-you-should-know-how-a-black-cowboys-discovery-changed-the-field-of-archaeology/
If you ever head from Amarillo into SE Colorado in the summer, take some extra time and go through Folsom. Stunningly beautiful part of New Mexico, especially the drive across Johnson Mesa on NM72. Iff you have lots of time, check out the local museum.
Quote:
On the evening of August 27, 1908, dark clouds gathered over the Dry Cimarron River along the New MexicoColorado border. Sarah Rooke, the phone operator in Folsom, New Mexico, called as many people as she could to warn them about the impending storm, but it wasn't long before water began pouring from the sky and rushing through the town, wiping away entire buildings in its path. More than a dozen lives, including Rooke's, were lost in the flash flood that night.
The next day, George McJunkin, a cowboy from Leon County, east of Waco, who worked as the foreman of a ranch near Folsom, took his horse out to survey the damage. As he trotted along the edge of a gully, which he called Wild Horse Arroyo in honor of the horses he broke there, he spotted something unusual sticking out of the soil....
