Barton Gulch - History

History

Barton Gulch, also known as the Barton Gulch Alder Complex, was discovered in 1972 and first excavated in 1979. Barton Gulch is dated back to 9400 RCYBP (radio carbon years before the present), and was actually uncovered due to intensive, localized commercial mining projects in the late 1970s. Barton Gulch, along with the Alder site, are regarded as the type sites for the Blackwater Draw Paleo-Indian archaeological culture, and believed to be a Clovis culture. Most of the excavations of Barton Gulch were done by Dr. Les Davis, a professor at Montana State University, in the late 1980s and early 1990s. There has also been an intermediate amount of mining done at Barton Gulch for gold due to the presumption that the source of gold found in Barton Creek could have moved its way down the channel into the area.