The 11,000-Year-Old Secret Hiding in this Small Arizona Town

I love to imagine what Southeastern Arizona may have looked like in the past. I envision covered wagons and campfires, then my mind slips back further, conjuring images of indigenous peoples living and thriving in our area.

I ponder wild animals and hunting grounds. I hadn't considered this, and what I learned about this fascinating site changed my perspective on what Cochise County must have been like several millennia ago.

Lehner Mammoth-Kill Site in Hereford

Tucked away near the quiet town of Hereford in a quiet corner of Cochise County, along the banks of the San Pedro River, lies one of Arizona’s most fascinating archaeological treasures, known as the Lehner Mammoth-Kill Site.

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I've driven past it many times and never gave it a second thought. This unassuming patch of desert holds clues to what life was like over 11,000 years ago.

A Cochise County Rancher's Discovery

In 1952, local rancher Ed Lehner stumbled upon something that was amazing and unbelievable. He was working on his land when he found some bones that didn't look like anything he was familiar with.

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They turned out to be the bones of a mammoth. A few years later, heavy rains uncovered even more. This was a turning point, and archaeologists came to the scene to investigate. What they found changed the way we understand early human life in North America.

The site turned out to be a Clovis-era mammoth kill site, complete with stone tools, fire hearths, and the remains of at least nine mammoths. Archaeologists also found bison, horse, camel, and even tapir bones. This was the first site with evidence that Clovis people didn’t just hunt mammoths, they cooked them too!

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Cochise County's Hidden Treasure

Today, the rancher's site is a National Historic Landmark, and it's managed by the Bureau of Land Management. It changes my whole image of what I thought Cochise County was about. Beyond the rich history of the Old West, our little corner of Arizona is also a window into the Ice Age.

Sources: Wikipedia | JSTOR | Historical Marker Database | City of Sierra Vista