Why do people live in McElmo Canyon?

Hello and welcome to the Cliffrose Classroom Geo-Inquiry website. This is the result of a classroom research project compiled by all students in the Battle Rock Charter School Cliffrose Classroom. This website is intended to be an educational tool for students to engage in the research process about their own community. Please note that it is still a work in progress, as learning and research continue and new information is added. Thank you, and we hope you enjoy learning along with us!

We are interested in the history of the Ancestral Puebloans because they lived in this area of McElmo Canyon. They were some of the first farmers in this area and grew massive communities. They figured out where water was to make farms and grow food. Their structures and pottery are found all over the area and even into Utah, New Mexico and Arizona. Understanding their success will help us understand why people moved to this desert area to farm.

It is believed the Ancestral Puebloans lived in McElmo Canyon because the canyon has great soil and seasons for farming, reliable water, protection for their homes and a lot of natural resources. The reason the soil is so great is because it has cryptobiotic soil. The cryptobiotic soil has veins all throughout the underground pumping nutrients into everything helping everything grow. The cryptobiotic soil also connects to all the plants near it and helps them grow. There is also red soil from Arizona.  The reason why is because the wind picks up red soil and begins to carry the soil from Arizona to McElmo Canyon. The red soil is a big part of why this canyon is good for farming because the red soil carries lots of nutrients for the soil. Another reason why the ground is so good for farming is because the growing seasons are longer in McElmo Canyon than a lot of other places. This area is as far north you can go and still have enough time to plant and harvest your crops (without needing a greenhouse).  The land is also so good for farming because of the reliable sources of water. There were natural springs on the cliffs so when they needed water they hiked up the cliffs to the springs and they probably filled up sacks with the water and hiked back down. They liked the canyon because it makes a great location to build because of the protection from the other tribes and wildlife. It's also a great place to build because of the resources and the abundance of trees, plants and animals. 

The Ancestral Puebloans architecture was largely connected to the sky to watch the stars, the sun's and the moon's movement.  This was for ceremonial reasons and to know when to plant the different plants that they grew since they did not have calendars like we do now.  Instead  they had to watch the sun, the stars and moon's movement to track time.  This helped them to know what season it was and to coordinate ceremonies.  The pueblos made here were mostly made out of sandstone. The reason why the pueblos here were made of sandstone is because there's mostly sandstone in the area where we live. They had small family pithouses and bigger pithouses for house clans. When they started building pit houses was around the 50 to 500 CE. They made their homes by making a clay mud mixture and stacking rocks on top of rocks. They then put that clay and mud mix in between the rocks and grabbed little stones and put them on the extra clay and they put wood on top and then stacking rocks on top of that. They built cliff dwellings for their defense but they didn't always build cliff dwellings because they didn't  always need to be safe from enemies. 

The Ancestral Puebloans depended on growing crops as part of their survival.  They grew squash, beans and corn mainly but also collected wild foods.  They grew corn squash and beans because they give a lot of protein when eaten together. And when grown together corn beans and squash would support each other, the corn would grow tall so the bean plant would wrap around it. The bean plant would fertilize the soil for the corn and squash.  As well ,the squash grows low and wide providing a shady cover which would make it so weeds wont grow and keep the water from evaporating. Ancestral Puebloans made a lot of ways to store water. They would make waffle gardens which are made by forming small walls of dirt around the plants and fill that area with water.  They would get water to flow in certain areas so over time that area that they did that with the water would become a very good place for farming. 

The Ancestral Puebloans made all of their tools, weapons, and artifacts with available materials. Some of the tools they used in food preparation were the Mano and Metate.  They were two stones that were used to grind corn into flour. They also used baskets and pottery for holding and cooking food.  They used many tools for hunting. They would do something called flintknapping to make arrowheads and spear tips which they would secure to suitable sticks with Yucca fibers to make spears and arrows which they would use with the Atlatl and Bow. They made a tool called the Rabbit Stick which they would use for hunting rabbits.   It could be thrown at the rabbit from a distance or used up close.  They had bone tools for harvesting meat and stone axes for chopping down trees. The Puebloans used tools for farming known as digging sticks, which they would use to make grooves and holes in the ground for planting seeds. They also make personal items such as blankets and bone objects for ceremonies and instruments to make music.  

The Ancestral Puebloans left many artifacts like pottery and their buildings but they also left other things. They left their stories behind so that their family could find the land that they lived on. They also left their homes but now they are just walls or there is just rubble. We find their drawings on the rocks, sometimes these drawings  were stories for their family. They left their weapons heads behind, or they could have broken off. There are a lot of artifacts around their villages which include things like pieces of woven sandals and pottery.   We also can find beads from their necklaces. They left their food in little storage places such as corn seeds. They left animal fur and bird feathers from other places. Fun fact, did you know that some pottery has different patterns on it for different ages?   The pottery with the ridges on it is really old but the ones with the paint on them are newer than the other one with the ridges. We know that the Ancestral Puebloans lived here for a long time because of all the artifacts we find that they left behind.  

Scientists believe that the cause of the Ancestral Puebloan's disappearance is a massive drought making it impossible to grow enough food to feed all the people causing them to have to move away from the area. 

Food the Ancestral Puebloans ate:

The Ancestral Puebloans did lots of hunting, but the wild plants that grew naturally were a very important food source for them. The Indian Ricegrass was native to the land and was an important food, especially before the three sisters were introduced. The ricegrass seeds could be eaten raw or cooked, and they would also eat it in bread and other meals. Pine nuts were important for the fat, and acorns could be made into a powder that would give them nutrients, protein, and fat. Their sweet foods were  prickly pear fruit and yucca flowers. They would also pick juniper berries and use them to spice food so that they did not have to just eat meat.

Resources the Ancestral Puebloans used to build:

Wood, plants, rocks, mud, and stone were all used together to build Ancestral Puebloan homes. Cedar and Juniper trees were valued for building because they were strong and didn’t rot very fast. Pine trees were sometimes used for building but they tried to save the pine tree because it gave them nuts for food, and tried not to use it to build. Cedar trees were mostly used for window frames or doors, or the Ancestral Puebloans would use Cedar to build roofs and throw dirt mud and clay to seal the cold in them for things like meat or what ever needed to be cold, because the Cedar and mud could hold the cold or if they wanted, heat. The Cottonwood trees could be for that too, but it was not as strong and would rot faster.  It was used for more temporary shelters and for firewood. The rocks would be used for the side of their homes or for wood stoves and they used mud to hold it all together.   

Plants the Ancestral Puebloans used to make materials:

The Ancestral Puebloans were experts in using the natural materials and the plants that were available to make the essential items they needed. The Yucca plant was very important for many things. Its roots and stalk were used for soap and the fiber in its leaves was used for weaving things like sandals, blankets, ropes, mats and baskets. The top of its leaves could be chewed and made into a paintbrush. After hunting animals,the Ancestral Puebloans would use the bone for many tools like a knife or an ax. Ancestral Puebloans would also use wood and stone to make other tools for farming, hunting, building, and traps. The Ancestral Puebloans used live juniper wood to make bows and they used the root of many plants to make the string for the bow. The Ancestral Puebloans used cedar bark to start fires.

How the Ancestral Puebloans farmed:

Farming was an important activity for the Ancestral Puebloans: they farmed in places like fields. They looked where the water ran off and they found cliffs with water. They built something called a check dam which was where they stacked rocks to make a dam that blocked the water and filled the area like a pond. All the dirt and silt would drop eventually making a flat area that was a good field for farming. It took about two generations to build and turn flat so they could start farming. They would start that for their grandchildren so that they could start farming and growing crops. They grew corn, beans, and squash. They also had to make a special tool called a digging stick to get the ground soft enough to plant their crops and to make little ditches & stone axes to clear out land for farming so the water could flow to their fields and crops. In the good years they would have lots of corn and beans and would dry and save the extra to use in water droughts years when they did not have enough. The Ancestral Puebloans also used a different type of farming called precipitation farming where they used dry land farming by collecting and storing the rain.

The plants used to make medicine:

The Ancestral Puebloans also used many plants for medicine. They used Pinion Pine for congestion. They also boiled the pine needles and made tea. They used Juniper trees for the flu, colds, headaches, and stomach aches. They crushed up the juniper berries and also boiled it for tea. Sumac leaves were boiled for tea to help with a fever and the extract of Sumac was gargled to cure diarrhea. The Ancestral Puebloans also used Gambel oak to help toothaches, fever, and burns. Sagebrush was turned into a hot drink to help with indigestion, colds, headaches, and for cleaning cuts. There was a certain rose that the Ancestral Puebloans used called a Cliffrose. They boiled the Cliffrose and used it for cleaning wounds and for coughs. They skinned the Prickly Pear pads and used it like Aloe Vera.

Title of Experiment:  Cryptobiotic Soil Hibernation experiment 

Purpose: 

We want to know why people live here in McElmo Canyon. Why would people want to farm here even though it is a desert and what is it about the soil that makes this a good place for farming?  

Learning about cryptobiotic soil will help us understand what the soil does for farming. Knowing more about the cryptobiotic soil helps us understand why people would want to farm here, because the people say the red soil and the cryptobiotic soil make the canyon a good place to farm. 

Observation: We have noticed that cryptobiotic soil can grow in even the most harsh environments like desserts. We have also noticed that somehow there is a lot of life in this desert canyon environment despite the lack of water. 

Background information: We know that hibernation occurs in winter. We also know that photosynthesis makes things green by using energy from the sun. Cryptobiotic soil makes sugar out of energy from the sun. It grows strings out of the sugar to feed plants. You can see cryptobiotic soil in the geology of the canyon because you can see strings that the cryptobiotic soil makes. It helps little organisms live and store their food because they can't store it themselves in their bodies.  Cryptobiotic soil also needs water to grow and expand. It also grows in columns. And when you crush it you may think you kill it but no you just destroy it’s home. 

Question:

We want to find out if cryptobiotic soil will go dormant or stay active in the winter if it has water, sunlight and sugar.

Hypothesis:  A lot of students in our class have a different opinion on this experiment. For some students their hypothesis is that the soil will photosynthesise because it is warm in the classroom where we will do our experiment.  They think if we put it in the sunlight and in a warm environment, it will come out of hibernation.   

Other students think the cryptobiotic soil will continue to hibernate because the winter light is lower in the sky than the summer light and this will keep the soil hibernating.  

Experiment:

The materials that we used: 

Material: 9/16 of a pint of water

Material: 2 pieces cryptobiotic soil

Material :6 drops of molasses

Material:  3 quarter-pint jars

Material:  3 coffee filters 

Material:  1 dropper

Material:  1 marker

Material:  1 measuring cup

The steps that we took:

First you must add 3\16 of a pint of water to each of the jars. Then you must add 3 drops of  molasses to the first jar full of water and move the jar off to the side. Next you must add 1 piece of cryptobiotic soil to the second jar and move it off to the side.  Finally put cryptobiotic soil and 3 drops of molasses in the third jar. Lastly, you must put all three jars in an area with a window facing south. Check jars everyday until they turn green or if you notice activity then take it out and observe closely and if no activity for a couple weeks and no photosynthesizing you will know it was hibernating.  

Results:

Jar 1 (water and molasses): In jar one there was mold growing on the side.The  liquid is a molasses color.  It looks like tea and there are little cloudy spots everywhere. 

Jar 2 (biotic soil and water) : Looks like ditch water; clear but not crystal clear.  The brown dirt sticks to itself instead of dispersing, there is no mold inside and there are small bubbles around the top rim, there is a darker ring around the top edge of the water.  There are no floating bits, the dirt does not separate.

Jar 3 (biotic soil, water and molasses): Like the second jar there are bubbles and they are forming and bubbles on the sides and in the middle.  It is molding and the mold is right above the water but it has less mold than in jar 1.  There is some dark brown dirt at the bottom. 

Conclusion:

Many of us thought that the biotic soil would hibernate instead of photosynthesis.   Jar one with just the molasses and water didn’t have activity except the mold.  Jar two with the biotic soil and water had some mold and some bubbles.  The bubbles seem to be a little sign of life.  Jar three with the soil, molasses and water was the most active with a lot of bubbles but still did not photosynthesize sadly.  Now we know that we should do it in a different season like spring or summer.  We think that the winter sun was just not enough for photosynthesis. Some classmates thought it was the moisture level that could have messed it up. The moisture could have messed it up by being too low or too high -we don't know. 

Analysis:  

Jar 1 was growing mold, Jar 2 was hibernating, and Jar 3 was active. In order for cryptobiotic soil to show signs of activity it needs H2O, sunlight, and a sugar source. We know this because when we put water and cryptobiotic soil in jar 2 it did not show much signs of activity because it did not have everything it needed.  But, when we added molasses, H2O, and cryptobiotic soil to jar 3 it showed a lot of signs of activity. The signs of activity that we saw were: strange bacteria growth on the side of the jar, brown bubbles on the side of the jar and in the middle on the surface of the water, and the water was a dark brown color.

We learned that biotic soil can't live without water, sun and sugar. One was active but did not photosynthesise, the other two bottles hibernated so we think that the moisture or weather messed it up.  Jar 3 was active but did not photosynthesise, even though the sun was shining on the bottles the winter sun was not enough. Even though it was active, that was not our target. We wanted it to photosynthesise. 

We are going to try again and keep working until we get it right. We were very close; it might just need to be done in summer or spring, so we should keep trying until we get it. 

The fact that the soil was still active is important for our research because it shows that even though it is not photosynthesizing it is hibernating but still working. This teaches us that it might not photosynthesize in the winter but if you give it all it needs in summer or spring it probably will photosynthesize. Even though it is not photosynthesizing it is active. 

Future questions:                                                                                                     

This experiment did not answer the question of why the soils in Mcelmo Canyon are so fertile.

We need to learn more about why cryptobiotic soil is so much better than other soil and why it's so good for farming.  Through our interviews, we also learned farmers think the red sand that blows in from Arizona and Utah are good for growing plants and we need to find out why.

A future experiment is to grow a plant with regular soil and grow a plant with cryptobiotic soil and study the different ways the plants in the cryptobiotic soil are different from the plants in the regular soil and if they are better. This experiment might include measuring the ph and the different minerals in the plants.  

Another experiment can involve red soil with the cryptobiotic soil and then cryptobiotic by itself. Then we can do an experiment with normal soil with the red soil and normal soil by itself.

Title of Experiment: Biotic soil vs. plain soil 

Question: 

How does the biotic soil in McElmo Canyon compare to sand and dirt?

Materials:               

• 3 test tubes

• Biotic soil

• Sand

• Plain soil

• water

What We Did: 

• We  put the Biotic soil in the first test tube and added water. 

• We put the sand in the second test tube and added water.

• We put the plain soil in the third test tube and added water.

• We observed it every day and recorded what we saw.

Results: 

Describe: Test tube with Biotic soil and water 

Test tube 1:  The test tube has white stringy things growing on the agar agar and it is smelly. One side had more stringy things growing on it than the other.  There is some water and the stuff looks a little fuzzy like a peach. The white lines look like small pieces of string cheese.  

Describe: Test tube with sand and water

Test tube 2: The test tube has a mustard brown color sand stuck to the agar agar, all the water evaporated, it has no smell and nothing is growing in it.  It looks like the sand is just sticking to the agar agar and you can see the grains of sand. 

Describe: Test tube with plain soil and water

Test tube 3: The soil in test tube one has little black squiggles which is the dirt stuck to the agar agar. There is just dirt, it is stinky, there is dirty water and no bacteria.  It looks like that because the agar agar makes the dirt stick and look like black squiggles.  

Explain: I think the water has nothing to do with keeping the soils alive because the water in the sand test tube is gone and the water in the plain soil just stinks.  The biotic soil test tube has water left and maybe it is helping the stringy stuff grow.  The biotic test tube is the only one that has any life in it so there must have been something in the biotic solid that was alive and could grow. 

Analyze: What we can learn from this experiment about farming or soil in the canyon is that the biotic soil is heather than plain soil or sand because something new grew in it.  This must be better for crops in the canyon. We think the biotic soil has fungus and bacteria working together to keep the soil alive and healthy and ready to help other plants grow.   We also know that it holds the soil together to help prevent erosion.   

Future Questions: 

• What exactly is the white stringy stuff?

• How does the stringy stuff help other plants?

• Does it have nutrients in it?

• How do the white strings hold the dirt together? 

• How are the white strings so strong?

• Will the biotic soil work with the dead soil?

• What happens if we mix both biotic soil with the plain soil?

• Does the biotic soil need a certain environment to survive?

• Which soil is better: Biotic soil or Red soil? What would happen if we mixed them together?

Audrey Allmon dedicated her life to education, teaching a total of 78 years.  She received an emergency teaching license at the age of 16 and today, at age 95, she is still helping students with homework. Audrey was the teacher at Battle Rock School for 52 years and was central in many other community events and initiatives.  Audrey spoke to us about some of her experiences teaching at the school that we are now attending.  Her stories, her dedication to the school, her ability to bring a community together and her love of teaching were very evident in our time together. 

Viviene Kenyon and her family have lived in McElmo Canyon for generations.  She grew up in McElmo Canyon and went to school in one of the other one-room school houses that was here but is now closed.  She has farmed in McElmo Canyon for most of her life and her family owns Gold Medal Orchards which was known for its fruit.  She spoke to us about her childhood and what it was like growing up here and attending school.  She also gave us her ideas as to why McElmo Canyon is such a great place to live and to farm. We were very honored to have been able to meet her and listen to her stories. 

The Tozer family has lived and farmed in McElmo Canyon since the 1800s.  They were one of the first families to homestead much of the canyon and have a long history in the community.  Bruce Tozer was born here and is the grandfather of a current Battle Rock student.  He shared some of his stories and memories with us.  He said there is no other place he would ever want to live than in McElmo Canyon!