By Mike Bowen, Co-author, We Found the Lost Sand Creek Site
Dr. Doug Scott, lead archaeologist with the National Park Service Sand Creek team in 1999, visited Chuck and Sheri Bowen in their home March 10, just a few months before the NPS archaeological search at the Bowen and Dawson properties.
This visit came after NPS historian, Jerome Greene, and NPS archaeologist, Steve DeVore, visited the Bowens to look at artifacts Chuck and Sheri found at the Lost Sand Creek Site.
They sat around a card table in the Bowens’ living room and viewed and identified many period artifacts.
From our book:
Greene’s knees scrunched up awkwardly under the table, his lips rested gently together, and only made eye contact occasionally. As he looked at the bullets, casings, arrowheads, and hundreds of other artifacts, he slowly picked up, looked at, and gently put down each one. This continued throughout the afternoon with little to say.
We Found the Lost Sand Creek Site
They looked at a very important piece, an artifact that undoubtedly marks the location of the 1864 Sand Creek event.
DeVore sat across from Greene and mostly observed.
“I’m not gonna say 100 percent, but this looks good to me.”
He looked at most of the artifacts for just a few seconds then put them right back down. He didn’t do that with the… “This is pretty significant.” He began to give away its importance as he held it and rolled it in his fingers for several minutes.
“I do think you do have some stuff there,” and he recommended that Dr. Doug Scott, NPS archaeologist, also look at the artifacts.
We Found the Lost Sand Creek Site
Dr. Scott viewed the same artifacts and identified many of them to be from the right period for Sand Creek, including bullets, kettle fragments, 1860s nails from ration or ammunition boxes, and a piece that could only be from the Sand Creek battle. It is the most important artifact of all.
His visit was documented with a VHS Camcorder, the kind that sat on your shoulder and held a VHS tape inside.
Scott picked up the important artifact and immediately identified it, noting it was conclusively from the Sand Creek battle.
“As they say, that’s a definitive piece,” Dr. Doug Scott, NPS Lead Archaeologist, 1999.
In the Bowens home, Dr. Scott identified most of the artifacts to be from 1864 Sand Creek period, but a few years later, he and Greene wrote a book. The narrative in their book was completely different. They threw the Bowens under the bus, saying they didn’t actually find the Sand Creek site, but a proposed townsite named New Chicago.
“That part of the collection (Bowen) is dominated by post-1880 tin cans, mass-produced cut nails, farm machinery, and bullets and cartridge cases postdating the 1864 event and quite likely associated with the short-lived settlement of Upper Water Valley, or New Chicago, that once existed in Section 14,” Greene and Scott stated in their book.
We Found the Lost Sand Creek Site
Neither Greene or Scott, while in the Bowens’ home, made any mention of farm machinery. And they didn’t provide any examples in their book of what they meant. In fact, Chuck and Sheri never found farm machinery, and every artifact they included in their over 4,000 finds, are undoubtedly from the 1864 event.
Our book, We Found the Lost Sand Creek Site, includes over 100 photos of artifacts, maps and period documents. Most of the information in this book has never been previously available to the public. The Bowens’ discovery has been minimized and lied about. Representatives with the National Park Service Sand Creek project promised Chuck and Sheri recognition for this monumental discovery. These promises were made numerous times.
In 2000, the NPS released their Sand Creek site location study and placed an X where they claimed was the townsite of New Chicago. The townsite was only a plan on paper and never came to fruition. Where they placed the X on their map was actually littered with these artifacts that both Greene and Scott identified.
It is truly a preponderance of evidence.
We Found the Lost Sand Creek Site documents where New Chicago would have been. The NPS was off by three miles, and in the wrong direction.
See all of the documentation in our book.
The discovery of the Lost Sand Creek Site doesn’t just add different locations, it changes the story.
Much of what has been told about Sand Creek since 1864 is not true, and that information doesn’t come from eyewitnesses. In Colorado Territory, Sand Creek was a celebrated battle. The massacre story started back East by Col. Chivington’s enemy.
History is being erased and seeking truth is being cancelled. Let’s not allow that to happen. It’s vital that we preserve accurate history. The artifacts are the concrete evidence—everything else is a theory without them.
Get a copy of our book to learn more about this incredible discovery and how the story is changed.
See more about our discovery and book on this website.
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There are over 100 photos of photos and maps in our book, We Found the Lost Sand Creek Site.
