Up in the foot hills of Jemez, there were several pits that were dug into the tuft from the Valle Grande's past eruptions. One is up by barranca mesa in Los Alamos. Another was down on the Truck Route in Los Alamos. The latter is off limits now, since the land has been given back to the local tribe from the Feds. However, the latter used to be one of my favorite hiking spots when I was a teen. It was called 'Deer Trap' and folks used to speculate as to what it was for. Some thought the Ancestral Puebloans (formerly called Anasazi) would funnel deer through there and a few would fall into the pits. Others thought the native americans would lie in wait and use spears or bows to ambush the deer when they were chased that way.

Since there were multiple, more than the two I mentioned, I have to wonder if the Hillside Gouger was an attempt to explain the pits like those that were found.