For some 10, years, Hueco Tanks has attracted people who visited and camped around the rock hills, and left traces that archeologists can interpret. The water sources, plants, and animals in and near the Tanks made the area an oasis in the desert. Evidence of many different groups that frequented the area has survived in the form of images drawn on the rocks, broken items left behind, and stained soils in areas that were intensely occupied.
Around 1, years ago the sandy land surface in this area stopped building up, so most of the discarded items, hearths, and house patterns left by people since that time remain on or near the modern ground surface. The highly visible and shallow archeological record of Hueco Tanks is easily damaged by activities that erode the ground surface, and many have occurred there.
The Tanks were a stopping point on a western trail for several decades in the mid nineteenth century, and the center of an active cattle ranch for over 60 years. The hills have been a recreation spot for at least years. In , artist Forrest Kirkland noted that "Flint flakes and pot sherds are plentiful throughout the entire area but artifacts [complete objects] of all kinds are extremely scarce now.
Archeologists and historians have traced the human history of Hueco Tanks by looking at information visible on the ground surface and the rocks. They first sought information through artifact styles, features, radiocarbon dating, and archival research.
Additional data on the rich historic fabric of Hueco Tanks came from rock imagery styles, artifact densities in shovel tests, and historic inscriptions. Together, these diverse information sources provide a detailed record of the timing and location of human activities at this special place. Although Hueco Tanks was not occupied continuously for 10 millennia, it is the only place in the region where every prehistoric and historic time period is represented.
