This latest installment of our MAREC project finds our volunteers (that's some of them over there on the right) completing smaller, more compartmentalized jobs in between visits by IFWEF’s contractor. He and his crew carried out our request to coat the flat, smooth sheetrock on the lab and library’s ceilings, fireplace encapsulation, and electrical panel with an orange-peel texture so that those surfaces would harmonize with the walls' coarser stucco. We were not disappointed. The results are superb.

The Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project in Velarde, New Mexico, recently added to their website two short virtual tours of some select petroglyphs under their protection. If you cannot travel to tour Mesa Prieta in person, these virtual tours give you a taste of how unique the site with its 100,000+ petroglyphs truly is. Descriptive text accompanies these virtual images, which can be rotated in 3D for enhanced viewing pleasure. Check out their Heraldic Lions Tour or their Shields and Shield Bearers Tour, then follow the link to their Sketchfab page to have fun with even more 3D petroglyph images!

/s/ webmaster [photo via Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project]

The El Paso Museum of Archaeology reopens on June 24, 2021, with a new schedule. Anyone can visit from Thursdays through Saturdays, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and admission is free.

The Museum announces that their regular galleries will be open as well as their special exhibition, “From the Edge of Center: The Chacoan Outliers.” Visitors to the special exhibit will enjoy artifacts from the Museum's permanent collection as well as items from the Salmon Ruins near Farmington, New Mexico, on loan from the San Juan County Museum Association.

For more information contact Jeff Romney at 915-755-4332 or [email protected].

Perhaps a GCAS field trip to El Paso is in order?

/s/ webmaster

Mark your calendars for 6:30 PM on Wednesday, June 16, 2021, to attend the GCAS's first post-pandemic in-person general meeting! Meet at the Roundup Lodge at 91 Acklin Hill Road in Mimbres, New Mexico.  Due to ongoing renovations at the Roundup we must defer our traditional summertime potluck dinner in favor of FINGER FOOD SNACKS ONLY for yourself or to share. Your beverages must be in recyclable containers and there is no cleanup available except for what you can take home yourself or put in the trash.

The GCAS began in 1928 but we never had a reliable location to shelve our growing Library and Archives. Instead, our group's materials remained in assorted boxes and bins and traveled amongst various GCAS members who stored them at their homes. Thanks to the Imogen F. Wilson Education Foundation (IFWEF), the GCAS Library and Archives finally found a stable home of their own at the Mimbres Culture Heritage Site in 2016. Now in 2021, IFWEF and the GCAS are rehabilitating two ground floor rooms of the Heritage Site's Wood House; once the rehab is complete the GCAS will box and bin their materials once again and relocate into those two rooms. There, our Library and Archives will become more accessible and our educational programs will have space for our annual research and experiential workshops.