Bayou Gulch discovery revealed 100,000 artifacts in Douglas County

Bayou Gulch holds one of Douglas County’s deepest archaeological records: a site on the northern edge of the Palmer Divide where Colorado Department of Transportation staff first uncovered relics in 1977, and where excavations in 1979 turned up about 100,000 artifacts. The collection included projectile points, tools, ceramic sherds and earth ovens, material that stretched from roughly 7,500 years old to about 150 years old.

History Colorado identifies the Franktown-area site as Bayou Gulch, 5DA.265, and describes it as a prehistoric campsite with evidence of occupation from the Early Archaic through the Protohistoric periods. That span covers Early Archaic times, from about 7800 to 5000 B.P., through the Protohistoric period, from 1540 to 1860 C.E. The site has been used to establish and corroborate the chronological prehistory of eastern Colorado and the west-central Plains, making it more than a cache of old objects. It is a reference point for how people used the region across centuries of change.

The value of the site is not limited to artifacts in storage. History Colorado says investigations at Bayou Gulch have produced important information about prehistoric industrial and agricultural practices, along with insight into the social history of the people who lived there. That is part of what gives the site its weight in a county where land-use decisions continue to shape the edges of Franktown and the Palmer Divide. As Douglas County grows, Bayou Gulch stands as a reminder that some ground holds a record no open-space map can replace once it is lost.

Douglas County moved to strengthen that record in 2014, when it received an $89,684 State Historical Fund education grant, listed as grant number 15-02-013. The county planned to use the money to produce a comprehensive report and nominate the site to the National Register of Historic Places. That nomination was later published in 2020 as Bayou Gulch, Franktown vicinity, address restricted, SG100005167.

The county has continued to treat the site as an active preservation issue. In June 2025, Douglas County promoted limited-time public tours of an active Franktown-area excavation tied to a State Historical Fund project aimed at an archaeological area threatened by erosion. The county said a portion of the site had originally been excavated by CDOT in the 1970s. Douglas County’s Historic Preservation Board says it exists to promote awareness of the county’s prehistory, history and heritage, and Bayou Gulch remains one of the clearest reasons that mission matters.