NEXT MEETING: Saturday, October 21, 2023, at 6:00PM: The GCAS’s general meeting IS RESCHEDULED from the usual third Wednesday of the month to the following Saturday, October 21, 2023, beginning at 6:00PM, for a special meeting and potluck dinner at 2045 Memory Lane in Silver City to welcome visiting members of the GCAS's friends and generous supporters of our MAREC project, the Albuquerque Archaeological Society. GCAS members, please bring your finest potluck dishes to share with about 15 members of AAS who would love to meet you. As we get to know one another, there will be a slideshow presentation of either the Rock House Petroglyph Site, the Dragonfly Petroglyph Site, or both. Join us on Saturday! (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, October 22, 2023, at 10:00 AM: Due to lack of a selected destination for the usual field trip on the first Sunday of the month, October's field trip is rescheduled to October 22 when members of the Albuquerque Archaeological Society visit our area. Destination will be either Rock House Petroglyph Site in lower Mimbres Valley (pending permit approval) or Dragonfly Petroglyph Site in Arenas Valley. Watch this space as details develop.

Historic Sites

HummerFest 2023 Is Here!

Hummerfest2023It's the time of year to visit the Mimbres Culture Heritage Site for their annual Hummingbird Festival, this coming weekend on Saturday, July 29 and Sunday, July 30. It starts tomorrow, people, so get ready now! Gas up the car, load the family, and drive eastbound from Silver City out Highway 152 to the Mimbres Valley. Turn left (north) onto Highway 35 and continue past mile marker 3; a few yards past the defunct Mimbres Valley Cafe turn right where you see the brown sign pointing you to the Mimbres Culture Heritage Site. Join the action from 8AM to 3PM both days for all kinds of big fun as we all learn about archaeology, ornithology, and much, much more. The GCAS will have an educational booth on site, and our GCAS library will offer a used book sale with titles to suit all tastes. Check out the HummerFest flyer over here on the left. For details, click to enlarge!

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GCAS Monthly Meeting In Person! Our September 21, 2022, Featured Speaker: Neal Ackerly

Lake_valley_NM_ca1880s_449112September 21, 2022, 7:00PM - This month's GCAS meeting is in person at the Roundup Lodge in San Lorenzo (Mimbres Valley). Start at 6PM with your own plates/utensils/beverage & a dish for yourself or to share. Brief general meeting at 6:45 PM. At 7:00 PM sharp we welcome our Featured Speaker, Silver City archaeologist Neal Ackerly, who will speak about the mines of Lake Valley including the Bridal Chamber Mine which contained one of the richest silver veins ever discovered. Join us as Neal explains:

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The GCAS Field Trip to Pitchfork Ranch

This report and all photos come to us courtesy of GCAS member and trustee, Kathryn McCarroll.

1 - Fine Day MKMThe forecasts of heavy monsoon rains and bad road access were greatly exaggerated for the GCAS's August 7, 2022, field trip to Pitchfork Ranch in the Burro Mountains. The weather that Sunday turned out to be splendid. A ranch employee guided a group of about 20 GCAS members and friends to a couple of small sites located within ranch property.

3 - groundstone cluster MKMThe sites our group visited included a small historic stone-and-adobe structure, while at other nearby areas, the group found clusters of groundstone and broken metates that may have been washed down from their former locations by years of past flooding (photo over there on the right)....

 

4 - drop pendants MKM 5 - malachite and tire treads MKM...And of course, the group photographed potsherds with varied designs and styles before returning them to where they'd been found. (That's a bit of malachite the group found among the potsherds, adding to the adventure.)

Thank you for sharing those photos and news of the field trip, Kathryn!

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The 2022 Hummingbird Festival Is This Weekend!

1 MA8499_2Set aside time this weekend to visit the annual Hummingbird Festival hosted by the Mimbres Culture Heritage Site. The event is free and open to the public from 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM on both Saturday, July 30 and Sunday, July 31. Get there early to watch how - and why - ornithologists band the wee hummingbirds; or mosey in at any other time to browse the vendors, and dine on all kinds of goodies. Directions, contact info and other details are here on the MCHS website.

Bonus: the GCAS will have a variety of gently-used archaeology- and anthropology-related books and periodicals for sale in the GCAS library in the ground floor of the historic Wood House. All proceeds go toward replacing books that have been damaged or gone missing from the GCAS library in past years. Please come and help improve our research library while you enjoy the rest of the Festival!

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BREAKING: New Evidence of Coronado Expedition's Route Through Arizona

Seymour and wall gunWe of the GCAS tip our hats to geologist/archaeologist Andrew R Gomolak! He kindly submitted to us an article and links to a series of short YouTube videos presenting Deni Seymour's findings from her archaeological excavations of the first sites in Arizona that can be attributed to the Coronado Expedition of 1539-1542. Andrew advises that the following materials are public information, with no restrictions on distribution; having enjoyed them ourselves we present them here for all our readers. Deni Seymour's work appears to be a monumental step forward in determining the Coronado Expedition's exact route through southern Arizona.

Andrew forwarded to us Deni's own description of her research:

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Online Via Zoom: Our November 17, 2021, Featured Speaker, Christopher Adams

Chris adamsWednesday, November 17, 2021, 7:00 PM via Zoom: GCAS general meeting features Christopher Adams, our good friend and the East Zone Archaeologist for the Black Range District of the Gila National Forest, who will present "The 1885 Apache Fight on Trujillo Creek, Southern New Mexico." Chris will discuss the archaeological work he has conducted on an 1885 Apache fight located on the Gila National Forest along Trujillo Creek, approximately seven miles southeast of Kingston, NM. If you have attended any of Chris's previous presentations, you know to expect an engaging historical tale that Chris brings alive with illustrations and photos of his own research and field investigations.

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MAREC Progress Report - Phase VIII

Bookcase construction WH2 Steve Collie builds bookcases WHRehab work continues in IFWEF's two upstairs rooms; the walls have been painted and the floors refinished, with final touches underway. Downstairs, the GCAS library's built-in bookshelves are in place and awaiting their final finish coats. (See volunteer Steve Collie at work in the first two photos over there on the left.)

Meanwhile, our GCAS volunteers spent an exciting morning assembling the furniture for the MAREC lab in the adjacent room. Our lab's two-station work bench sports a tabletop ledge shelf and an electrical power strip for small power tools. Two rolling trolleys stowed underneath this work station offer additional storage opportunities for all participants. A freestanding locking cabinet will keep researchers' work product secure. Our refinished hutch provides an extra work surface as well as space for educational materials.

(Scroll down for more photos!)

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Our Growing MAREC Family

8022We are thrilled to announce that the following friends have contributed a combined total of $8,022.12 in support of our MAREC rehabilitation project. Thanks to them the GCAS's two rooms in the historic Wood House have fresh coats of paint in cheerful colors, bright lights and ceiling fans, a utility sink/workbench assembly that can't be beat, and much more. Thank you, one and all, for making the MAREC dream come true:

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MAREC Progress Report - Phase IV

Man glitterWe are excited to announce that our GCAS supporters have now contributed a total of over $7000 toward our project goal of $10,000. Such generosity has allowed us to continue through the typical fits and starts every rehabilitation project faces, and for that we thank all of our donors. We and IFWEF continue to coordinate the work of our two groups' volunteers with IFWEF's two professional contractors, while each group navigates the challenges of timing the purchase of construction materials subject to - shall we say - today's opportunity pricing.

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The Day's Guest Blogger: Kyle Meredith

Our very own GCAS President, Kyle Meredith, tells us a tale of a trip to Peru from years past. He said he was prompted to write after having seen a blog post on our website with a link to an article that discussed Peru's papa nativas (native potatoes) and the archaeological site of Moray, Peru. Welcome back, Kyle!

Pisaq Peru - photo by K.MeredithA blast from the past! I have a propensity for falling in love with every place we go, but Peru more than others. So much of it looked so familiar. I had to look up Moray on the map because I could have sworn we had seen it, but actually it looked very similar to Pisaq in many ways, also in the Sacred Valley. In fact, the reason it looked so much like Pisaq is because one of their photos WAS Pisaq from almost the exact same spot that I took the photo.

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