Co-author Bonnie Pitblado argued in a 2017 paper that the Rocky Mountains were an earlier and more important part of the initial peopling of the western hemisphere than most archaeologists had traditionally believed. In this presentation, we summarize evidence for the earliest occupation of the Rockies, beginning in Clovis time (13,400 – 12,600 cal BP) and increasing in the immediately subsequent Folsom era (12,800 – 12,300 cal BP). We use this big picture to contextualize the very recent findings of co-author Powell in the Upper Gunnison Basin (UGB) of southwestern Colorado, where he has documented Clovis artifacts in contexts where they have previously not been known to occur. We also touch on the method Powell used—partnering with local UGB residents who possess artifact collections from their ranches—to detect traces of that very rare early material. We end with the suggestion that in places like the western United States, where private land owners legally possess most of the material record of the past, understanding Clovis and other difficult-to-detect components of the archaeological record requires such collaboration.