Southwest Archaeology Today for Oct. 27, 2006

Archaeology making the news – a service of the Center for Desert Archaeology.

– Years of the OK Corral: October 26 marks the 125th anniversary of the street fight, as it was called at the time, and as thousands of tourists jam the streets of Tombstone to attend forums and watch reenactments, it’s fairly obvious that the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral is firmly entrenched in American mythology.
http://www.americanheritage.com/places/articles/web/20061026-wyatt-earp-ok-corral-tombstone-gunfight.shtml

– Kit Carson: Both Hero and Villain? Hampton Sides’s “Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West” (Doubleday, $26.95) is a comprehensive, beautifully written account of the nation’s mid-nineteenth-century expansion to the Pacific under the banner of “Manifest Destiny.”
http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/web/20061025-navajos-manifest-destiny-kit-carson.shtml

– Commentary: Vast land, vast protection: Ensuring the protection of public lands within the National Landscape Conservation System is vital to America and the West. Not many people are aware of America’s newest system of conservation lands. The conservation system is run by the Bureau of Land Management and encompasses vast, wild landscapes featuring scenic wonders, archaeological resources and paleontological treasures.
http://www.abqtrib.com/news/2006/oct/19/commentary-vast-land-vast-protection/

– Four Corners Sites Featured at Smithsonian Museum: An exhibit produced by the Bureau of Land Management, including Four Corners locations and photographers, is currently on display at the Smithsonian Institution on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. “America’s Priceless Heritage: Snapshots in Time” opened in September and celebrates the 100th anniversary of the 1906 Antiquities Act. The photographic exhibit features sites and artifacts from land managed by the BLM and spans the Middle Jurassic period through the 20th century. Ten western states-Utah, Alaska, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Idaho, Colorado, Montana, Washington and California-are represented in this exhibit, which is a sampling from the “outdoor museum” available on public lands. In addition to Four Corners places it includes photographs of 170 million-year-old dinosaur tracks in Utah, Navajo dwellings in New Mexico, Captain William Clark’s rock signature in Montana, and a portion of the famed Route 66 in California. This exhibit will be on display through November at the S. Dillon Ripley Center of the Smithsonian, located on the National Mall. For more information on the BLM’s national educational programs about cultural and fossil resources on public land, visit the web site “Adventures in the Past” at:
http://www.blm.gov/heritage/adventures

– Symposium: Indios y Californios on the Anza Trail Symposium, Thursday, November 16, 2006, 7 p.m., Free. Arizona Historical Society Auditorium, 949 East 2nd Street, Tucson, Arizona. Moderated by Malcolm Margolin, founder of the Heyday Institute and publisher of Heyday Books. Reception and booksigning follow the roundtable discussion. Includes presentations by: Barbara Levy, Quechan elder and Yuman language storyteller from Fort Yuma, California; Vladimir Guerrero, author of The Anza Trail and the Settling of California; Rose Marie Beebe & Robert Senkewicz, editors of Testimonios: Early California through the Eyes of Women, 1815-1848; and Stanley Bond, Superintendent of the National Park Service Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail. The Arizona State Museum gratefully acknowledges community partnerships with: The Heyday Institute, the Anza Trail Coalition, Arizona Historical Society, Desert Archaeology, Inc., Los Descendientes del Presidio de Tucson, Native Seeds/SEARCH, Rio Development, Tucson Pima County Historical Commission, the Tucson Presidio Trust, and the City of Tucson’s Rio Nuevo Office.

– Learning Expedition: Missions, Presidio, and Land Grants, Saturday, November 18, 2006. $85 ASM members, $95 non-members. Highlights of this day trip include Tumac