NEXT MEETING: Wednesday, April 19, 2023: the GCAS meets at 2045 Memory Lane in Silver City, New Mexico. Light refreshments provided; OK to bring your own light snacks or handy meal (burrito, etc.) & beverage if desired. Doors open at 5 PM for socializing. Meeting starts at 5:30 PM sharp with a short business meeting followed at 5:45 PM by featured speaker and GCAS member Carolyn O’Bagy Davis, who will discuss Bert and Hattie Cosgrove, avocational archaeologists who were instrumental in documenting and preserving a number of local sites including Arenas Valley's Treasure Hill. Meeting to adjourn about 7:00 PM. In order to offer our members a safe and comfortable experience the GCAS follows CDC and New Mexico Department of Health guidelines for indoor gatherings including masking, distancing, and vaccinations. We recommend all attendees follow the same.

NEXT FIELD TRIP: Sunday, April 2, 2023, beginning 9:00 AM: Regular GCAS field trip to City of Rocks State Park - view remnants of Apache shelters along the Cienega Trail, plus features in other easy-access locations like a rock shelter, Apache petroglyph, kiva, and multiple mortar holes. City of Rocks is about a 1-hour drive one-way from Silver City. At 9:00 AM meet at the Cienega Trail trailhead parking (a few hundred yards from the Highway 61 turnoff to the City of Rocks - look on the left side of the road for a parking area with a Port-o-Let). Walk the 1-mile easy Cienega Trail loop to inspect some off-trail features. About 11:00 AM, non-hikers can join the rest of the group to learn about the kiva site a few yards from the Visitor Center. About 11:15 AM, drive round the park’s perimeter road to the north side to view the rock shelter, Apache petroglyph, and mortar holes (short but moderately steep walk uphill from area near campsite #35). Picnic lunch follows at any convenient unoccupied campsite.

Two Upcoming Lectures on Gila River Archaeology
Upcoming Online Lectures: All About Birds

MAREC Progress Report - Phase VII

Josh Reeves at work Fresh paintThe joint GCAS-IFWEF rehabilitation project continues. The plumbing for the lab’s utility sink is connected and fully functional, bringing water into a building that has not enjoyed any indoor plumbing in decades. IFWEF and GCAS volunteers have hung, re-trimmed, and painted a total of six interior and exterior doors. The exterior doors have new overhangs to help divert rain water and snow melt. We all agree that the doors' fresh coats of bright paint really help the Wood House come alive.

Marilyn Markel’s special storage closet under the lab’s stairway – christened by one of our GCAS members as the Education Bunker – is fully enclosed, illuminated, and secured, with raised mats on which to store materials for Marilyn’s archaeological educational programs. The Bunker’s door received its final coat of paint and is ready for service. (See green-and-white door below, on the right.)

Overhang MM's Education Bunker

IFWEF has resumed construction in the Wood House’s two upstairs rooms, and we’re looking forward to built-in bookshelves and a full floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall bookcase in the library. While we’re waiting for the dust to settle from all this work, two GCAS volunteers are taking a succession of three free-standing pieces of GCAS furniture off-site for sanding and refinishing so that they will be ready to be put in place as soon as practicable.

Thanks to all our donors' support, the Wood House is moving closer to its next vibrant phase of life. With gratitude and on behalf of all the GCAS,

13 - Sanding going according to plan/s/ webmaster

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