A FOLSOM COMPLEX 



Preliminary Report on Investigations at the Lindenmeier 

 Site in Northern Colorado 



By frank H. H. ROBERTS, JR. 



Archcologist, Bureau of American Ethnology 



(With i6 Plates) 

 INTRODUCTION 



Investigations at the site that yielded the first definite complex of 

 stone implements attributable to so-called Folsom Man came as the 

 culmination of an interesting series of events that began in May 1934. 

 In that month D. I. Bushnell, Jr., collaborator in anthropology, United 

 States National Museum, discovered in two collections gathered from 

 various parts of Virginia examples of the type of projectile point which 

 has been called Folsom. Announcement of this fact was made by the 

 Smithsonian Institution in one of its press releases. The article, with 

 photographs of the specimens, was printed in slightly revised form in 

 the Literary Digest for June 9, 1934. This notice loosed a veritable 

 flood of letters, and queries poured in from collectors all over the 

 country. There was some confusion about what constituted a Folsom 

 point, and the editors of the Digest felt that a second article, one 

 describing its characteristics in detail, was advisable. In response to a 

 request from them the writer prepared a statement which appeared in 

 the issue for July 28. The latter brought letters from many parts of 

 the United States from people who had examples of the Folsom type. 



Among the letters were several which were received indirectly. 

 Maj. Roy G. Coffin, professor of geology at Colorado State College, 

 Fort Collins, had on two occasions, prior to the Digest articles, written 

 to Dr. John B. Reeside, Jr., geologist in charge, section of stratigraphy 

 and paleontology, United States Geological Survey, concerning a site 

 in northern Colorado. At that place he and a brother had found a 

 considerable number of Folsom points, several other kinds of chipped 

 tools, and indications that the implements had been made on the spot. 

 Following the appearance of the second Digest article, Major Cofifin 

 again wrote to Dr. Reeside. The latter brought the correspondence to 

 the attention of Henry B. Collins, Jr., division of anthropology, U. S. 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 94, No. 4 



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