The Allens' Gila Bend Excavations

The Allens’ Gila Bend Excavations ALAN FERG From 1939 to 1979 (with a few exceptions during World War II), the Allens spent up to five months each winter in the Gila Bend area, camping and excavating (see Schwartzlose’s article in this issue). American economist Thomas Sowell recently said, “All that makes earlier times seem simpler is our ignorance of their complexities” (2010). And life in camp certainly included daily chores. Ernest maintained and repaired anything that broke on the vehicles, trailer, and camp equipment. Norton was at his drafting board most days, keeping up with the preparation of maps and illustrations for Desert Magazine and any other clients he might be working for. Lenna did most of the cooking and clothes washing , and Ethel subsequently largely took over these duties after she and Norton were married in 1954. Where Lenna had kept a daily journal, Ethel often took notes. But away from city life and phones and televisions , and before computers existed, let alone were omnipresent, the pace of life in camp certainly appears to have been calmer than what most people experience today (figure 1). Evening meals were often taken with others in camp. Conversations, games, and writing and reading letters were the entertainment, along with simply enjoying the weather and the animals and the desert. Hunting and digging for artifacts was the pastime of choice (figure 2). Norton’s favorite subjects for photography were sunsets, cloud formations, and desert plants (especially saguaros and fan palms), and when these could be combined, so much the better (figure 3). And there were other events to be experienced in the desert, in ways not possible in cities and towns (figure 4). In forty seasons of excavating, and more of surface hunting, Norton and his family worked at a substantial number of archaeological sites in the Gila Bend area (see Ferg and Schwartzlose 2008: table 1). This is far more time in the field in that area than any archaeologist spent before or since. Norton stated that in all those years he never traded or sold any of the prehistoric Hohokam artifacts he excavated in the Gila Bend area, doubtless because he viewed them as having been systematiALAN FERG is the archivist at the Arizona State Museum. Journal of the Southwest 52, 2 and 3 (Summer-Autumn 2010) : 201–235 Figure 1. Lenna Allen in camp under the big palo verde tree at the Gatlin Site. (Photograph by Norton Allen; developed July 20, 1946) Figure 2. The five sites where Norton and his family excavated most often, which yielded about two-thirds of all the artifacts they collected. C is the Citrus Site. G is the Gatlin Site. The Three Mile, Four Mile, and Twelve Mile Sites (shown as numbers on the map) were so named for their distances north of the Allens’ camp at Gatlin. This is a detail of the Automobile Club of Southern California 1947 Arizona state map. (Reproduced by permission of the Automobile Club of Southern California Archives. Site locations added by Richard A. Schwartzlose). Figure 3. Sunset with a saguaro in silhouette. (Photograph by Norton Allen; developed March 15, 1946) Figure 4. The glow from an atomic bomb test, as seen from Gila Bend, just before dawn, in 1955. Norton was in Gila Bend from January through April 1955. During this time Operation Teapot detonated seven predawn, aboveground, test blasts at the Nevada Test Site. The Turk shot, on March 7, was three to twenty times more powerful than the others, and it seems probable that this is the blast Norton saw. (Photograph by Norton Allen) 204 ✜ JOURNAL OF THE SOUTHWEST cally collected (after a fashion), and they formed a cohesive, complete assemblage that should not be broken up. The maintenance of the Gila Bend collections intact was essential to their value for scientific research, and for preserving the culture history of the Gila Bend Hohokam. This was Norton’s self-appointed goal, which he spent a lifetime fulfilling. He and his family spent their own time and money to assemble this collection. After protracted negotiations, an agreement was reached in December 1994 among the Allens, the Tohono O’odham Nation, and the University of Arizona...