Register now! The 21st Biennial Mogollon Conference is happening early next month on Friday, November 4, 2022, thru Saturday, November 5, 2022, in the Student Union building on the University of Arizona campus in Tucson, Arizona. A reception, free of charge to all attendees, hosted by Archaeology Southwest on the evening of Thursday, November 3, 2022, kicks off the weekend and offers an excellent opportunity for students to mix with faculty and the rest of the professional community. Click here for registration info and more details, and revisit the Conference website for any updates. We'll see you in Tucson!

/s/ webmaster [photo by M.Smith]

September 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:

The El Paso Museum of Archaeology on Transmountain Road has announced a new exhibit in their North Gallery that features casts of the animal and human fossil tracks found in White Sands National Park and the surrounding White Sands Missile Range, that have recently been dated to be about 23,000 to 21,000 years old. The findings have caused anthropologists and archaeologists to reconsider their assumptions of early human occupation of the Western Hemisphere.

The El Paso Museum of Archaeology's exhibit is planned to continue only through February 8, 2023, so plan your visit soon. The Museum describes their temporary display, titled White Sands Fossil Tracks, as showcasing:

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

The 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.

The 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)....

...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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This year's Mogollon Conference is set for Friday, November 4, 2022, thru Saturday, November 5, 2022, in the Student Union building on the University of Arizona campus in Tucson, Arizona. Go here for details on registration, the Call for Papers (deadline is September 2, 2022), Conference Schedule, and more as they develop. Register before October 1, 2022, for a sweet early-bird discount. There will be a reception (cost estimated at $50-$65) hosted by Archaeology Southwest on the evening of Thursday, November 3, 2022, which offers an excellent opportunity for students to mix with faculty and the rest of the professional community.

Finally, please re-check the Conference website for periodic updates. We'll see you in Tucson!

/s/ webmaster [Photo by M.Smith]

We are saddened to report that longtime GCAS member, Raymon McGee, passed away at age 91 on July 26, 2022, in his home town of Deming, New Mexico.

Ray was very active in our group, especially during the 1970s through 1990s, concentrating his explorations of archaeological and historic sites in southwestern New Mexico including the Bootheel. He became so knowledgeable of the area that he led many GCAS field trips to areas unknown to most other people, including to a petroglyph site in an unnamed canyon on BLM land near Deming. So significant was this petroglyph site to our group, that the GCAS nicknamed its location as "McGee Canyon" in Ray's honor.

Wednesday, July 20, 2022, 7:00PM: The GCAS monthly in-person general meeting congregates 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 the GCAS's friend Dr. Bob Stokes, chair of ENMU's Archaeology Department, who will present his team's Preliminary Results from ENMU's 2021 Summer Field School at the Mares Rockshelter, a Jornada Mogollon Site along the Lower Rio Grande near Radium Springs.

Big News! Friday, October 7 through Sunday, October 9, 2022, marks the 2022 Southwest Kiln Conference in Silver City, sponsored by the Western New Mexico University Museum under the leadership of museum director Danni Romero. The public is welcome and the conference is free. WNMU will provide outdoor space for firing up of the kilns and the museum will host conference room space for presentations. Attendees will also want to visit the WNMU museum itself, which includes the largest and most complete collection of Mimbres materials in existence from a single prehistoric Mimbres site, and the largest and most comprehensive permanent interpretative exhibition of Mimbres pottery and artifacts in the world. Read on for more details:

"The Southwest Kiln Conference attracts a diverse group of people with a shared interest in better understanding prehistoric southwestern pottery. Expect to meet potters who work in a variety of ceramic traditions, making replicas of Anasazi, Hohokam and Mogollon pottery. The conference will offer glimpses of the entire process from collecting raw clay, to forming pots and of course firing. All are welcome and the conference is free and open to the public."

SBecause the first Sunday of July always collides with the July 4 holiday, the GCAS traditionally offers our "July" field trip at the end of June. So, let's all set aside time on Saturday, June 25, 2022, 10:00AM-12:00PM noon, to take our field trip to the 2022 Archaeology Fair hosted by Archaeology Southwest and the University of Arizona's Preservation Archaeology Field School at Gila River Farm in Cliff, New Mexico. The public is welcome and it's free of charge, so nothing could be better than joining GCAS members in learning about the project team's current discoveries through their informational exhibits, hands-on activities, and a brief site tour over easy terrain. General directions are: From the junction of Highways 180 and 211 in Cliff, drive 1 mile north, keep left (north) on Highway 293 and drive to Mile Marker 4. Just past MM 4, turn right into a driveway with a small sign that says, "Gila River Farm." Please use the parking area next to the large building down the driveway. Check their event flyer for more info: Download archaeology-fair-2022.pdf (455.6K). Learn more about the field school here, and here.

Safety measures will be in place so please be prepared to wear a mask and keep a safe distance. If you still have questions contact Archaeology Southwest. We'll see you at the Fair!

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Please join our GCAS monthly meeting on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, when our Featured Speaker, Amanda Semanko, visits our group at the Roundup Lodge.

The evening starts at 6PM with your own plates/utensils/beverage & a dish for yourself or to share, followed by a brief discussion of general GCAS business at 6:45 PM. Amanda begins her feature presentation at 7:00PM sharp. Amanda may select from a wide range of topics to share with us including her past analysis of a dog burial at Kipp Ruin; her current research establishing a Mimbres strontium baseline; and/or her dissertation project on turkeys and turkey feather artifacts. Whichever direction the presentation takes us, please join us and Amanda for an informative and entertaining evening! In order to offer Amanda and 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.