the history of the san mateo mountains is intimately linked with the rich history of the surrounding area. basham noted in his report documenting the archeological history of the cibola's magdalena ranger district that "[t]he heritage resources on the district are diverse and representative of nearly every prominent human evolutionary event known to anthropology. evidence for human use of district lands date back 14,000 years to the paleoindian period providing glimpses into the peopling of the new world and megafaunal extinction."