[Source: NMSU Sun-News] -- The New Mexico State University Chihuahuan Desert Rangeland Research Center, also known as the college ranch, has been used as a place to test border security technologies and to conduct research on ecology, range science and livestock. Now the ranch has added another distinction. The Summerford Mountain Archaeological District that lies within the ranch's boundaries has been named to the National Register of Historic Places. "This is the first time that any site on the college ranch has been put on the National Register," said Beth O'Leary, NMSU associate professor of anthropology.More than 350 petroglyphs (etched into the rock) or pictographs (painted on the rock), arrowheads, pottery and other artifacts have been found at 12 prehistoric rock art sites in the archaeological district, O'Leary said, asking that the exact locations not be revealed because of possible looting or vandalism. Furthermore, the sites can be excavated and Carbon-14 dating used to give a better insight into the history of the people who lived in the area between 5000 B.C. and A.D. 1400. "We're on the border in the Jornada Mogollon cultural area that includes the Mimbres area, too," O'Leary said. "So there was a lot of movement back and forth of prehistoric people in the Deming area, the Mimbres, the Gila, through here, and into Mexico. These sites reflect that. There are images that are found in Mexico, around Casas Grandes, and brought into the Southwest. "We nominated the district to the National Register because it is a significant area that documents the migrations of people into and from the Southwest. The Anasazi start a little north of Truth or Consequences. The Kachina cult, which Pueblos embrace as their religion, came through the Mogollon and Jornada area. And we can see the beginning of Pueblo religion in the rock art sites, too."
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