Sherds and Points: The Amateur’s Archaeological Story of Durango, Colorado, Vol. I, 1940-Vol. II, 1941 (Pamphlet)

Description

Authors: Various (see Notes)

Publisher: Durango Herald-Democrat

Pub Date: 1941 (Offprint)

Binding: Paperback (Metal post)

Condition: Fair to Good.  Metal posts in good shape, have not worn through hole-punches.  No marks, tears.  Upper corner bowed.  Upper rear corner has approx. 1/2″ bend.  Front and  rear lower covers scuffed.  Edge and corner wear.  Hole punched (probably at least twice)

Notes: I’m calling this a “Pamphlet” for lack of a better term, even though it’s 8½” x 11″, and only 12 pages.  These are reprints of articles that originally appeared in the Durango Herald Democrat between March and June, 1941.  While the cover of this volume may say “Volume I, 1940” those first ten reprints are not included here, only “Volume II Numbers 11-22” are here.  This is one of the most unusual items I’ve ever come across.  Each of the articles has a different author and different subject.  The first author, “Zeke”, is not identified, but research indicates Zeke was Isiah F. “Zeke” Flora.  Flora (1901-1978) arrived in Durango in 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression.  He prospected for gold in the canyons around Durango, and in 1934, unearthed several Basketmaker mummies.  Earl Morris, then at the Carnegie Institution, was notified and funds were offered for the mummies preservation.  Flora was also involved in pot-hunting, and collected numerous samples of charcoal.  Somehow, Harold Gladwin found out about Zeke’s pottery collection and purchased it for Gila Pueblo.  Gladwin also hired Zeke to conduct archaeological research, and he excavated and recorded hundreds of sites around the Durango area.  His charcoal collection eventually ended up in several hands–Gila Pueblo, Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, Earl Morris,  There are a number of essays about Flora and his excavations, his relationships with Morris and Gladwin, the Durango area archaeology groups of the 1930’s.  Jeffrey S. Dean’s “Tree Ring Dates from Colorado W: Durango Area” (Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, University of Arizona, 1975) has an excellent recounting of most of these interactions between Flora, Gladwin, Morris, and others.  See https://joethebookguy.com/shop/archaeology/tree-ring-dates-from-colorado-w-durango-area/  One of the most recent articles concerns one of the mummies Flora dug up.  See https://www.fortlewis.edu/Portals/2/Schools-Departments/Faculty%20Directory/Fine-Dare%20Durkee%20J%20West%202011[2012]_1.pdf?ver=2020-01-05-200902-310

Other authors of these newspaper articles included Temple H. Cornelius, later the author of “Golden Treasures of the San Juan” (Swallow Press, 1961), “A Guest Writer” (perhaps Helen Sloan Daniels (1899-1979), a Durango librarian and amateur archaeologist, and a coauthor of “Sherds and Points: Durango Amateur Archaeology Story“, what may have been Volume I.  Another “Guest Writer” signs him or herself as “Hattak Nashoba”,  “Wolf Man” in Choctaw.  Douglas S. Byers, an editor of American Antiquity is identified as a guest writer but is listed beneath the title “Whose Pie Is It, Anyway?” (Vol. II, Article XX).

VERY RARE.  No copies available for sale.