George McJunkin facts for kids
George McJunkin (1856–1922) was an amazing African American cowboy, explorer, and historian from New Mexico. He made a super important discovery in 1908: the Folsom site. This site helped us learn a lot about early people in North America.
George McJunkin was born in Midway, Texas. His parents were slaves. He was about nine years old when the Civil War ended. He started working as a cowboy, helping to move goods. He taught himself how to read and write. He also learned to speak Spanish and play the fiddle and guitar!
In 1868, McJunkin moved to New Mexico. He became a foreman, which is like a manager, at the Thomas Owens Pitchfork Ranch. He was also a skilled buffalo hunter. He worked on many ranches in Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas. People said he was one of the best bronc riders and ropers in the whole United States. Later, he became the foreman of the Crowfoot ranch near Folsom, New Mexico. In 2019, he was honored in the Hall of Great Westerners at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.
Discovering the Folsom Site
In 1908, a big flood hit Folsom. It caused a lot of damage. George McJunkin was checking the Crowfoot Ranch after the flood. While fixing a fence, he went into a dry creek bed called an arroyo. The flood had washed away a lot of dirt there.
In the arroyo, McJunkin found something incredible! He saw the bones of several giant, prehistoric bison. These bison were much bigger than the ones we see today. Among the bones, he also found a special type of stone tool. Today, we call these tools Folsom points.
McJunkin knew this discovery was very important. He left the site mostly untouched. He only took a few sample tools and bones. For several years, he tried to get archaeologists interested in his find. But he didn't have much luck at first.
In 1918, he sent some bones and a stone tool to the Denver Museum of Natural History. The museum sent a paleontologist named Harold Cook to the site the next spring. Cook and McJunkin did some early digging. However, a full excavation of the site didn't happen until 1926, after McJunkin had passed away.
The giant bison that McJunkin found had died out at the end of the last Ice Age. Finding human tools with these bones proved something huge. It showed that people had lived in North America much earlier than anyone thought. Before McJunkin's discovery, people believed humans had only been in North America since about 2000 BCE. But the Folsom site proved that people were here as early as 9000 BCE! This changed how we understand the history of early cultures in North America.
George McJunkin was buried at the Folsom Cemetery in Folsom, New Mexico.
See also
In Spanish: George McJunkin para niños
