Summary
George McJunkin
January 9, 1851 – January 1922
Nationality: American
Notable: Cowboy & Archaeologist
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George McJunkin was born on January 9, 1851, in Rogers Prairie, Texas on a ranch owned by his slave master John Sanders McJunkin. His father was a blacksmith and mule breeder who had purchased his freedom several years before McJunkin’s birth. While little is known about McJunkin’s mother, it can be assumed that she was enslaved given that McJunkin was born into slavery.
Growing up on a ranch, McJunkin learned various ranch hand skills. Millions of cattle roamed Texas and needed to be led to railyards where they would be taken to cities for slaughter. Mexican vaqueros, cowboys who managed and drove cattle, would herd the livestock and move them from Mexico to the railroad stations.
McJunkin learned how to ride from these men. He would also sneak out to hear cowboys gathered around fires tell stories about their exploits driving cattle. Although he was a boy, McJunkin recognized that he was enslaved. Seeing the cowboys move about freely and have some degree of work equality inspired McJunkin. From an early age, he dreamt of growing up to become a cowboy.
At the time, many enslaved children received little to no education. McJunkin was comparatively fortunate because he received four years of schooling but was still illiterate. He remained enslaved until the Civil War ended when he was around the age of 17.
Now a free man, McJunkin left Texas for a fresh start and searched for new opportunities in New Mexico. He set out barefoot with just a few belongings, ropes, and cornbread in a sack. Along the way, he came across one of his slave master’s mules and borrowed it in exchange for his years of unpaid labor. He was paid a fistful of quarters for helping a group of settlers dig a well and used the money to purchase his first pair of boots.
After arriving in Comanche he found work as a horse wrangler and later returned the mule. McJunkin would also work as a buffalo hunter and skinner. But he spent 50 years working as a cowboy and became well known as a horse breaker (or bronco buster).
Intellectually curious, McJunkin learned to read and write watching other cowboys or bartering bronco-busting lessons for literacy lessons. McJunkin was also able to learn Spanish, likely from his days among the Mexican vaqueros and working along the Texas-New Mexico border. He learned to read the stars and collected rocks, fossils, crystals, and other items from nature.
During his career, McJunkin participated in many bronco rides. This involved herding and driving hundreds of horses across the plains for sale. The work was lucrative but also dangerous. Traveling through the plains ran the risk of confrontations with Native Americans. One such incident resulted in a group of Comanches capturing over 700 horses. This started a back-and-forth of retaliation between the groups that ended with murders on both sides.
These were still early days in the West and the few towns were often dangerous. McJunkin sometimes safeguarded gold that had been earned from the sale of horses from outlaw groups. He was eventually hired near Trinidad, Colorado as a wagon boss by Dr. Thomas Owen. In that position, McJunkin oversaw 20 cowboys, thousands of cattle, and hundreds of horses on the ranch. He was also responsible for leading drives of hundreds of horses or cattle. The horses that he broke sold quickly and became coveted.
McJunkin later went to work as wagon boss on the nearby Crowfoot Ranch that was close to Folsom, New Mexico. On August 27, 1908, a sudden thunderstorm dropped over a foot of rain at the Colorado-New Mexico border on Johnson Mesa. The resulting flash flood ran down into the valley and wreaked havoc killing more than a dozen people, washing away buildings in Folsom, and eroding land.
The land on Crowfoot Ranch was fenced in to contain the cattle and horses. McJunkin set out the next day on his horse to take stock of the damage and assess any necessary repairs. McJunkin was riding along a gully where he broke horses and had named Wild Horse Arroyo. A large object protruding from the ground caught his attention.
When McJunkin dismounted to get closer, he realized that they were animal bones that were exposed by the sudden soil erosion. The bank was about 11 feet below but yet the bones were visible. Given their depth, McJunkin knew the bones had to be older than those typically found in the area. McJunkin was familiar with modern buffalo and their bones to which these bones bore a resemblance but were much larger. He deduced that the bones likely belonged to an extinct species.
McJunkin knew this discovery was significant and retrieved a skull and a few bones. He spent the rest of his life trying to alert individuals and educational institutions to his find but no one showed any interest. This was partly because the site was remote and the journey was tough on horseback. However, he did manage to get two fellow amateur archaeologists interested. George McJunkin died 14 years later in a Folsom hotel in January 1922.
Months after McJunkin’s death, one of the men he’d written to about his find, Carl Schwachheim convinced a friend with a car, Fred Howarth, to make the journey with him. Four years after seeing the size of the bones, the group connected with Jesse Dade Figgins, the director of the Colorado Museum of Natural History (CMNH) in Denver.
A paleontologist confirmed the bones belonged to extinct ice age bison. Further excavation in search of ice age fossils for display at the museum uncovered spear points. While the bison bones were significant, the presence of spear points showed that Native Americans had been present in North America about 7,000 years earlier than previously believed.
As frequently occurs throughout Black history, Schwachheim and Howarth were credited with the discovery until 1971. It’s unclear when and how exactly McJunkin was written out of the discovery’s story. But it’s worth noting that Figgins was a registered Ku Klux Klan member and likely would have been more comfortable giving credit to Schwachheim and Howarth even if he knew about McJunkin.
A 1946 book by the archaeologist Frank C. Hibben gave credit to McJunkin. A 1971 article by archaeologist George Agogino used research and oral histories to confirm that McJunkin had indeed discovered the Folsom Site. McJunkin is now credited with discovering the Folsom Site. However, experts argue semantics over whether he should be credited for just the site and possibly the bison bones as he did not also uncover the human artifacts.
Sources
- Doherty, Matt. “George McJunkin – Black Cowboy & History Changing Amateur Archaeologist.” Legends of america, October 2022. https://www.legendsofamerica.com/george-mcjunkin/.
- “George McJunkin.” National Parks Service. Accessed July 24, 2024. https://www.nps.gov/cavo/learn/historyculture/george-mcjunkin.htm.
- Morrow, Julie. “George McJunkin, a Cowboy Who Loved Archeology – Arkansas Archeological Survey.” Arkansas Archeological Survey. Accessed July 24, 2024. https://archeology.uark.edu/george-mcjunkin/.
- Nash, Stephen E. “The Story of George McJunkin, a Hidden Figure in North American Archaeology.” Atlas Obscura, February 21, 2022. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/george-mcjunkin-folsom.
- Nodjimbadem, Katie. “Texans You Should Know: How a Black Cowboy’s Discovery Changed the Field of Archaeology.” Texas Monthly, November 18, 2020. https://www.texasmonthly.com/being-texan/texans-you-should-know-how-a-black-cowboys-discovery-changed-the-field-of-archaeology/.
- Peeples, Matt. “George McJunkin and the Discovery That Changed American Archaeology.” Archaeology Southwest, October 20, 2020. https://www.archaeologysouthwest.org/2015/02/23/george-mcjunkin-and-the-discovery-that-changed-american-archaeology/.
- Peterson, Heather. “George McJunkin (1851-1922).” Blackpast.org, February 25, 2020. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/mcjunkin-george-1851-1922/.
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