On a high mesa overlooking the Animas River Valley about 1 mile south of the present town of Durango, a thriving Pueblo community existed between AD 780 and 830. Here, hundreds of people lived and dry-farmed the rich red loam soils.

Today, this ancient Pueblo community is threatened by commercial growth of the area. As a result of this growth and for safety reasons, Williams Gas Pipelines West was required to replace or reinforce their existing pipeline in this area. Prior to replacing the pipeline Williams had Woods Canyon Archaeological Consultants, Inc. conduct archaeological investigations to evaluate and protect any archaeological sites that would be damaged by the construction.

To this end, Woods Canyon conducted an archaeological survey, a testing program at site 5LP378, and eventually completed an excavation of a ancestral pueblo pithouse at 5LP378 prior to construction.