Aurora Archaeology - Smoky Hill and Senac

This is a live, in person tour! We will meet at the MOD Pizza Parking Lot to visit the first site on Smoky Hill Trail, after which we will go to the Aurora Reservoir for the second site!

Thanks for joining us for the our first tour of the season!

We are going to be visiting two archaeological sites in person to kick off our season!
The two sites which we will visit provide a fascinating slice through the timeline of Denver and its surroundings. Here were so much has been lost and paved over, the Smoky Hill Trail Site and the Senac Archaeological Site in Aurora provide glimpses of a past shaped by a landscape that knew nothing of concrete and little of glass.

The Smoky Hill Trail site lies on a trail that helped shape the colonization of Colorado. As more and more people began moving westward to cash in on the discovery of gold in Colorado, many started their journey in eastern Kansas and followed the Smoky Hill River. They followed the watercourse into Colorado before leaving it along one of three forks. The middle of those forks - the Starvation Trail - ran through what is today Aurora. Foot and horse traffic gave way to stages and freight under the management of the Butterfield Overland Dispatch and later of Wells-Fargo until the railroad provided a better option than either. Evidence of that traffic and the discovery of artifacts from the Early Ceramic Period (AD 150-1150) speak to the intermittent use of the site.
After we visit the Smoky Hill Trail site, we will go to the Senac Archaeological Site at Aurora Reservoir. Attendees will be responsible for their own transport to the second site. This site is now partially covered by the Aurora Reservoir, but culltural resource survey work done by the City of Aurora found more than 5 acres of lithic artifact scatter, modified bison bones, and cultural deposits dating from the Early Ceramic Period (AD 150-1150). It's drowning is a poignant reminder of the balance that must be struck between the needs of the present and the promise of the past.

We are very excited to have Dr. Gordon Tucket back with us for another tour!
Gordon C. Tucker Jr., PhD is a professional archaeologist with over 45 years of experience in cultural resources management (CRM). He has worked on hundreds of projects across the western U.S., including pedestrian surveys, documentation, evaluative testing, mitigation (excavation), and archaeological monitoring of a variety of sites. After retiring in 2021, Dr. Tucker joined the Sociology and Anthropology Department at Metro State University of Denver as an adjunct faculty member. In the summers since 2012, Gordy (as he prefers to be called), has traveled to Israel to participate in the excavations at two ancient sites, Tel Ashkelon in southern Israel and Tel Shimron in the Lower Galilee region of northern Israel.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

MOD Pizza, 23890 East Smoky Hill Road, Aurora, United States