EL MORRO NATIONAL MONUMENT — Maybe it is not Coronado’s horse’s bit that Leslie Moosman raked up in her back yard, but even the distant possibility has Nation Park Service employees, along with everyone else who has heard the story, thinking about the explorer and his journeys.
In early September, Leslie Moosman was cleaning up pine needles in her back yard when she scraped up a bit of rust encrusted metal buried in the needles and loose dirt. Thinking it might be part of something her husband, Supervisory Park Ranger Fred Moosman, had dropped, she put it aside.
Eventually, Leslie asked her husband if the approximately 11.4 by 2 inch rusty object was part of something of his. The ranger said, “When I saw it, I about fell over. It looked really old.”
The Moosmans live on the grounds of El Morro National Monument, where early Spanish explorers are known to have traveled and Coronado is assumed to have visited, so Ranger Moosman had a hunch the old rusty object might be something Spanish.
“It looked equestrian,” he said, and started an Internet search that quickly turned up a modern Spanish curb bit with features on the bottom that closely resemble the object. Moosman said the possible bit piece reacted strongly to a magnet, indicating a high ferrous content like iron, or some steel.
Everyone loves a mystery and the romance of the past. The journey of the metal fragment to its eventual identification will provide both. Moosman turned the found object over to the park service where it quickly had seasoned service employees agreeing that the piece certainly suggested the possibility of being at least of the Spanish colonial era.
No one in the service wants to say “Coronado’s Quest of Discovery” or even “horse bit” but the romance of El Morro cannot help but suggest the early horseman/explorer.
The Moosmans metal object found its way to Dr. Jim Kendrick, NPS archaeologist who said, “It has the potential to be Spanish Colonial, but I am not ready to say (that it is or is not).” Kendrick said the metal piece has been sent out for lead isotope testing.
The lead isotope process can sometimes match an iron piece to a known area or forge which will have a chemical finger print. This metal testing method has traced some historic objects found in the U.S. to previously identified Spanish Colonial sources in Mexico. Lead isotope testing cannot be used to date an object in the same way that carbon dating is used, but if the place of origin can be identified, and if it is know how long the forge operated or the source was active, then an object can be loosely dated by association.
But is this object what it looks like? Is it an old horse bit? Kendrick said he really would not like to say. “I like to have data,” he explained. He did confirm that he sees no “red flag” that suggests the piece is not a very old horse bit, he just can not prove anything one way or the other today.
Funding for more research on this find and for proposed remote sensing along the areas near the monument would come the National Park Foundation, the charitable partner of the national park system and supported by private donations. Kendrick said the El Malpais district, who oversees El Morro, has applied for a foundation grant.
Kayci Cook-Collins, director of the El Malpais district, said “Fred’s find has gotten us excited. (It makes us realize) not all the cool stuff has been found. Something comes out of the dirt from the past in 3-D.”
She added that the park service preserves aspects of the past and that violating historic and archaeological protection laws will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
Moosman said violating the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979 is a felony and results in serious penalties for convictions, running up to $100,000 fines and prison time, plus confiscation of all equipment used in any artifact collecting. The act is stronger than the better known Antiquities Act.
What can you do if you find artifacts in your own back yard? “My back yard IS federal property,” Moosman quipped, but added that the laws covering antiquities are complicated and people should consult someone familiar with that area of law.
Will the Moosmans get the “bit” back? The find belongs to the park service and by extension the people, so no, a private person wouldn’t expect to get such a find returned, but there is a possibility that El Morro might eventually get the piece back.
(Original headline: A bit of history )
