Great Plains Studies, Center for
Review of On the Edge of Purgatory: An Archaeology of Place in Hispanic Colorado. By Bonnie J. Clark
Date of this Version
Fall 2012
Citation
Great Plains Research, Volume 22, Number 2, Fall 2012, pp. 211-212.
Abstract
Bonnie Clark's book is a welcome addition to the small body of published literature regarding Great Plains historical archaeology. It concerns two habitation sites located on the Pinon Canyon Maneuver site, a modern military base in the canyon lands of the Purgatory River (which the Spanish named EI Rio de Las Animas Pedidas en Purgatorio) in southeastern Colorado. The river is the lifeblood of this region, with a deep record of occupation by both prehistoric and historic populations. Clark searches for Hispanic Colorado, which she identifies as both a people and a place. But unlike other historical archaeology studies, this one has few written records to rely upon for building a story of the peoples of the past. The goal of Clark's work is to place these two sites into a broader social fabric of Hispanic place.