Saturday and Sunday, July 26 and 27, 2025, 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM both days, it's HummerFest at the Mimbres Culture Heritage Site and the GCAS educational booth will be just outside and around the corner from the GCAS library & lab in the historic Wood House. We’re seeking 3 or 4 volunteers for each of the 2 days to run the GCAS educational booth for an hour or 2, or as long as you like. No experience necessary; we’ll show you how to hand out GCAS brochures, play the potsherd ID game, & sell used books. Email Marianne or telephone/text her at 772-529-2627 to please help!

We’ll also show members around our two rental rooms during HummerFest, to introduce them to the layout and how our artifact collections are organized. The more members who are familiar with our library and collections, the better!

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We have a winner!

The GCAS’s own treasurer, Kathryn McCarroll, received a Richard A. Bice Award For Archaeological Achievement at the May 2-4, 2025, annual meeting of the Archaeological Society of New Mexico (ASNM) in Albuquerque. The ASNM’s Bice Award recognizes individuals who have made significant and sustained contributions to their local archaeological society and Kathryn has served the GCAS’s mission since her first day as a member. She’s been a reliable volunteer in our educational programs and public outreach events and has served as GCAS treasurer and as a member of our board of directors since January 2023. She extends the GCAS’s mission to her extra work as a volunteer at the WNMU Museum where you might find her cleaning and mending ceramic artifacts under Museum director Danni Romero’s guidance.

Congratulations on your Bice Award, Kathryn – you’ve earned it!

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Saturday, April 19, 2025, 10:00AM-3:00PM at Gough Park in Silver City,NM: celebrate Earth Day, hosted by the Continental Divide Trail Days/Continental Divide Trail Coalition, at the GCAS educational booth. We're asking for 3 or more GCAS members to help set up, run, and/or close out our booth during this event. Volunteer for a couple hours or all day. No experience necessary to show the public what the GCAS does - we'll have plenty of brochures, games, and selected artifacts on display as well as used books for sale to support our GCAS library. Contact Marianne by email or telephone/text to 772-529-2627 to offer your help!

Unfortunately we have no volunteers for a GCAS booth, but Earth Day still goes on so enjoy the events in Gough Park all day!

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Saturday, October 19, 2024, 10:00AM to 3:00PM, at the Mimbres Culture Heritage Site in Mimbres, NM: the MCHS celebrates National Archaeology Day with guided site tours, tales of local legends, and activities for the whole family. Immediately following, from 4:00PM to 5:00PM at the Roundup Lodge, Marilyn Markel will present Apaches on the Mimbres and the Story of the Captive Boy, Santiago McKinn. Santiago McKinn's later residence has recently been located at a Mimbres Valley historic/archaeological site so this is a talk you won't want to miss. Telephone Marilyn directly at 575-536-9337 with any questions.

For even more online and in-person action, always check out the long list of upcoming activities happening all over the place, on the GCAS Events page on this very website.

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The next several weeks are chock-full of archaeologically flavored events and activities, and one of them offers an opportunity for you (yes, you!) to help introduce local schoolchildren to experience hands-on education in ancient pottery techniques:

Friday, September 27, 2024, 9:30AM to 12:00PM Noon at the WNMU Museum in Silver City: the San Lorenzo Elementary School's 4th and 5th grade classes, guided by the GCAS's own Marilyn Markel, visit the WNMU Museum for a morning or education and activities, immediately followed by a pizza lunch for the kids and all other participants in a nearby outdoor area. Marilyn Markel is seeking two volunteers to help at the Museum and to enjoy a slice of pizza afterwards. Please telephone Marilyn directly at 575-536-9337 to help out and for extra details.

On a very warm and sunny Sunday, August 4, 2024, twenty one members of the Grant County Archaeological Society (GCAS), coming from as far away as El Paso, Texas, gathered together to explore the Archaeological Conservancy’s Treasure Hill site located in our very own Arenas Valley. Archaeologists consider this Late Pithouse-to-Mimbres Classic site (roughly 550 CE – 1130 CE), comprising a total of 100 rooms in 6 room blocks plus an additional 24 outlying sites, to have been the largest Mimbres community in the middle Rio de Arenas/Whiskey Creek watershed. Unfortunately Treasure Hill, like so many other Mimbres sites, has suffered heavy looting from the late 19^th Century to the present. A major road and residential development surround it and it has accumulated windblown trash as well as garbage carried in by unauthorized visitors.Consequently...

Sunday, August 4, 2024, 10:00 AM: This month's field trip takes the GCAS to Treasure Hill, located 4 miles east of Silver City in the Arenas Valley and about 1 mile south of Highway 180. Treasure Hill is a heavily looted 15-acre site with a total of about 100 pueblo rooms, ranging from the Late Pithouse to the Classic Mimbres era (about 550 CE - 1130 CE). We will meet at the gate to the site at 10:00 AM sharp but this site is in a sensitive location so please contact trip leader Marianne Smith ([email protected] or phone/text 772-529-2627) for specific directions.

The Gila Wilderness holds a special place in the hearts of us out here in the territories. It was the world's first designated wilderness and it's right here in our own back yard. Find out about centennial events throughout 2024 here on the US Forest Service Wilderness Ranger District's web pages. Learn more about the Gila Wilderness's history and culture here.

Save a very special date: Saturday, June 1, 2024, 12:00PM noon-4:00PM, to visit Gough Park in Silver City: join the fun as the GCAS shifts our usual "first Sunday of the month" field trip one day earlier to the first Saturday of June to celebrate the main event of the 2024 centennial of the Gila Wilderness. The US Forest Service Wilderness Ranger District is our host, commemorating the vital partnerships throughout the community that have contributed to the preservation of the Gila Wilderness over the past century. The GCAS is one among many such community organizations that will have a booth in Gough Park to showcase how we local people working together have preserved the Gila Wilderness for us all to love and enjoy.

/s/ webmaster

The Gila Wilderness holds a special place in the hearts of us out here in the territories. It was the world's first designated wilderness and it's right here in our own back yard. Find out about centennial events throughout 2024 here on the US Forest Service Wilderness Ranger District's web pages. Learn more about the Gila Wilderness's history and culture here.

Save a very special date: Saturday, June 1, 2024, 12:00PM noon-4:00PM, to visit Gough Park in Silver City: join the fun as the GCAS shifts our usual "first Sunday of the month" field trip one day earlier to the first Saturday of June to celebrate the main event of the 2024 centennial of the Gila Wilderness. The US Forest Service Wilderness Ranger District is our host, commemorating the vital partnerships throughout the community that have contributed to the preservation of the Gila Wilderness over the past century. The GCAS is one among many such community organizations that will have a booth in Gough Park to showcase how we local people working together have preserved the Gila Wilderness for us all to love and enjoy.

/s/ webmaster

The Gila Wilderness holds a special place in the hearts of us out here in the territories. It was the world's first designated wilderness and it's right here in our own back yard. Find out about centennial events throughout 2024 here on the US Forest Service Wilderness Ranger District's web pages. Learn more about the Gila Wilderness's history and culture here.

Save a very special date: Saturday, June 1, 2024, 12:00PM noon-4:00PM, to visit Gough Park in Silver City: join the fun as the GCAS shifts our usual "first Sunday of the month" field trip one day earlier to the first Saturday of June to celebrate the main event of the 2024 centennial of the Gila Wilderness. The US Forest Service Wilderness Ranger District is our host, commemorating the vital partnerships throughout the community that have contributed to the preservation of the Gila Wilderness over the past century. The GCAS is one among many such community organizations that will have a booth in Gough Park to showcase how we local people working together have preserved the Gila Wilderness for us all to love and enjoy.

/s/ webmaster