Magic Mountain Site
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Magic Mountain Site
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Magic Mountain Site, Golden
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| Nearest city | Golden |
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| NRHP Reference # | 80000904 |
| Added to NRHP | 1980 |
The Magic Mountain Site is an Archaic and Woodland village site in Jefferson County, Colorado dating from 4999 BC to 1000 AD. The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
The site was named for the property owner Magic Mountain Amusement Park in the late 1950s. One hundred years before, the area was the Apex mining district, served by a small stagecoach stop.
Magic Mountain site, in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in the Denver Basin, is located by Apex Creek. The ecosystem is a transitional mountain-plains zone.
Within the Denver Basin, prehistoric time periods are traditionally identified as: Paleo-Indian, Archaic and Ceramic, or Woodland periods. The Denver basin is a geological definition of a portion of the Colorado Piedmont, from Colorado Springs, Colorado, to Wyoming. The Palmer Divide, with elevations from 6,000 to 7,500, is a subsection of that area that separates the South Platte River watershed from that of the Arkansas River. It runs perpendicular to the Rocky Mountains and divides the Denver metropolitan area from the southern Pikes Peak area.
People of the Archaic period were hunters of smaller game, such as deer, antelope and rabbits, and gatherers of wild plants. The people moved seasonally to hunting and gathering sites. Late in the Archaic period, about 200-500 A.D., corn was introduced into the diet and pottery-making became an occupation for storing and carrying food.
The groups of people during this period became much more diverse, were more likely to settle in a location or a couple of locations, cultivate, domesticate animals, make pottery and baskets, and perform ceremonial rituals.
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