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:. <br />io <br />a small number of archaeological sites still provides important <br />(sometimes the only) information on chronology and subsistence. <br />The ideal research strategy combines the best of both tactics, <br />regional survey and intensive excavations. <br />Regional archaeological investigations cannot be neatly <br />compartmentalized into discrete time periods. Two general <br />periods of investigation can be discerned, however: an early <br />period predating 1952 and a recent period lasting from 1952 to <br />the present. This latter period is characterized by <br />archaeological projects of three institutional entities: <br />Trinidad State Junior College (Hand, Latuda, and Bair 1977; Wood <br />and Bair 1980), University of Northern Colorado (Lutz and Hunt <br />1979), and Colorado Department of Highways (Blair 1980; Gleichman <br />1983). The purposes and accomplishments of these investigations <br />are summarized in the following paragraphs according to time <br />period. <br />arly Period (ore-1952 <br />• Archaeological investigations conducted in the region prior to <br />the 1960s were sporadic and often incidental to their primary <br />6; objectives. The first investigations in eastern Colorado were <br />performed by the Department of Anthropology of the University of <br />Denver beginning in 1930. The results of these field studies <br />were published in a series of reports over the next five years <br />(Renaud 1931, 1932, 1933, 1935). Specilic site locations were <br />not reported, but the abundance and diversity of prehistoric <br />remains in the region were noted. Wedel (1939) visited the area <br />in 1938, but his efforts were concentrated in eastern Las Animas <br />- County. <br />The University of Denver continued fieldwork in southeastern <br />i ~ Colorado during the 1940x. Renaud and Chatin (1943) reported on <br />;? archaeological sites located in the Cuchara Drainage during the <br />7 1941 field season. This work was performed in order to revisit <br />,,' ~ Indian stone enclosure sites which had been seen in previous <br />k~~.' seasons (Renaud 1942) and to find new sites of the same kind. <br />~~ !.':` Robert Tatum and Norman Dondelinger conducted surveys of Las <br />L Animas County between 1941 and 1943; the results of their work <br />are reported in Dondelinger and Tatum (1942) and Tatum and <br />Dondelinger (1945). They recorded 108 sites and determined <br />~: general locations for another 57. Of the latter 17 were on the <br />Park Plateau. According to Lutz and Hunt (1979), "This survey <br />is the first to attempt to synthesize and interpret site data in <br />' ~ that an effort was made to locate and type sites within a <br />~~~ cultural-temporal framework." <br />Following Tatum and Dondelinger's work, serious archaeological <br />~.-' work was not conducted (or, at least reported) in southeastern <br />'~. Colorado. Investigators such as Renaud were, however, busy <br />recording sites in nearby regions such as the Upper Rio Grande <br />