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.

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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

Our friends to the east at the Jornada Research Institute have sent us an update on their archaeological activities and invite interested folks to join in the fun. JRI president Dave Greenwald reports that their work continues at Creekside Village including in the great kiva area. During March into April, volunteers will help complete one 2 m by 5 m area within the great kiva. Dave describes JRI’s further investigations:

Thursday, October 3 through Saturday, October 5, 2024, Silver City NM: It's the 22d annual Mogollon Conference, hosted by WNMU and the Museum at Fleming Hall.

The Museum will host a complimentary reception for attendees on the evening of October 3 before the two-day conference gets underway on Friday and Saturday at the Bessie Forward GRC on the WNMU Campus. Registration for the conference sessions is $45/person until September 19; thereafter $55/person. BUT: special offer to GCAS members! The Museum needs 3-4 volunteers to help with registration at the conference and would waive the registration fee for those folks! Contact Museum Director Danni Romero to volunteer; check the Mogollon Conference website for all other developing info including fees for the October 4 banquet and the Sunday, October 6 Mimbres Foundation reunion:

Now's the chance for anyone interested in becoming a SiteWatch volunteer to step up!

SiteWatch coordinator Jessica Badner would like to come to our area on Feb. 4-5 for site steward training. If you know someone that wants to be a site steward please have them call Marilyn Markel as soon as possible at 575-536-9337. Marilyn advises that we need  about 12 people to sign up to have the training. If those dates do not work SiteWatch may schedule the training for mid February or try to do a ZOOM training.

Marilyn Markel advises us that the annual SiteWatch conference is to be held on March 2, 2024, at the Los Luceros Historic Site near Santa Fe. Watch the GCAS website for details as they develop, or check with the web page for SiteWatch New Mexico.

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