Historical dendroarchaeology of two log structures in the Valles Caldera National Preserve, New Mexico, USA

We used dendroarchaeological techniques to determine the year of construction of two historic structures in the Valles Caldera National Preserve of New Mexico, USA Historical documents date some structures in the headquarters area of the Preserve, but the Commissary Cabin and Salt Barn were lacking conclusive construction dates Both structures were originally thought to have been built by the Otero family who bought the property in 1899 We found that the structures were built from two tree species, white fir (Abies concolor (Gordon) Lindl ex Hildebr.) and Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco), surprising given that ponderosa pines are also found in great numbers in the adjacent forest Tree rings from 20 logs were confidently crossdated both graphically and statistically and provided cutting dates of trees in both structures of 1940 and 1941 when compared against the Fenton Lake reference chronology (Commissary Cabin: r= 0.69, t= 15.54, p< 0.0001, n= 263 years; Salt Barn: r= 0.77, t= 11.7, p< 0.0001,