anthropology preservation
anthropology preservation
anthropology preservation
anthropology preservation
anthropology preservation
anthropology preservation
anthropology preservation
anthropology preservation
anthropology preservation
anthropology preservation
anthropology preservation
anthropology preservation
anthropology preservation
anthropology preservation
anthropology preservation
anthropology preservation

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Alexander McSween Home Excavation
Hembrillo Battlefield Survey
Lincoln County War History
Oliver Lee Ranch House Restoration

Alexander McSween

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For over 100 years the Lincoln County War (1876-79) has fascinated people interested in the causes of the war and the lives of the participants, especially Alexander and Susan McSween, Billy the Kid, John H. Tunstall, L.G. Murphy, Sheriff James Brady, James J. Dolan, and Col. Nathan Dudley. Numerous books and articles have been written about the Lincoln County War and its participants, especially in recent years. While the war is well known through historic documents, very little has been recovered from the archaeological record of the area. The archaeological record contains details about the War, the lifeways of the McSweens, and life in frontier New Mexico not recorded in the historical record.

Architectural remains and burned artifacts from the McSween House in Lincoln, New Mexico, were recovered during archaeological test excavations conducted in the summers of 1986, 1987, and 1988. The Alexander and Susan McSween house was the scene of the most famous gun battle of the Lincoln County War, a violent struggle between two rival factions of businessmen, ranchers, and lawyers for political and economic control of the county. A 5-day siege of the McSween House ended during the evening of July 19, 1878, when Alexander McSween, Billy the Kid, and others fled the burning house.(View Floor Plan and Notes) McSween and four others were killed just outside the house, while the other defenders reached the safety of the brush along the Rio Bonito.

Today, two more recent houses occupy the site of the U-shaped McSween House. In 1986, archaeologists excavating under the floor of one of the houses (the Fresquez House) found an alignment of adobe bricks covered by a compact fill with small fragments of charcoal and burned adobe. These adobe bricks may be the foundation of the outside wall of the east wing of the McSween House, which was occupied by the Shield family, Susan McSween's sister Elizabeth and her husband and children. Other tests under the house exposed stratified deposits with window glass fragments, charcoal, and burned adobe. A very thin, white layer may be the remains of wall plaster.

In 1987, excavations conducted west of the existing Fresquez house recovered evidence of the McSween wing of the house, occupied by McSween and his wife, Susan. Architectural remains included charred wood, ash deposits, and large pieces of burned adobe, possibly from walls or the roof. McSween-era artifacts included burned and melted glass, nails, exploded cartridges, and burned china, cloth, and marble fragments. The marble may have been from the top of a dresser or wash stand.

Further excavations in 1987 in the vicinity of the west wing of the house provided not only evidence of the gun fight, but important artifacts that indicate the lifestyle of the McSweens. The artifacts included coffee beans and peppercorns, animal bones, barrel hoops, tin cans and bottles, pieces of glass shade and beads from a parlor lamp, part of a chamber pot, and small beads used to decorate clothing. At the bottom of the deposits, 3 feet below the surface, were foundation rocks.

Limited excavations in 1988 revealed a cellar under the west wing of the McSween House filled with debris from the burned house. The cellar was probably the borrow pit for soil used to make adobe bricks for the La Placita store built by L.G. Murphy in the early 1870s and later converted into the McSween's home. However, evidence of the supposed parlor connecting the two wings of the house was elusive. This part of the house was probably removed when the ruins of the adobe house were removed following the gun battle and fire.

Public education was an important part of the excavation project. Volunteers learned about archaeology and historic preservation by helping to screen fill, catalog artifacts, and map the site; field school students learned excavation techniques; and the excavations were observed by tourists from across New Mexico and the United States and from several foreign countries. Site Visitors learned about archaeology and the Lincoln County War through informal discussions with archaeologists.

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anthropology preservation
anthropology preservation