Southwest Archaeology Today for Dec. 12, 2005

Archaeology Making the News – A Service of the Center for Desert Archaeology

– Historic Preservation in SW Colorado: In 1934 two American men were born a world apart, but now share a love for the same Southwest Colorado canyon. Howard “Bud” Poe was born in a Michigan hospital and lived in Detroit. Harold Baxstrom, born to Montezuma County pioneers, came into the world prematurely in a one-room stone house in Trail Canyon and spent his first few weeks wrapped in cotton lying in a shoebox behind a wood cook stove. Now, 70 years later, the men are working on a history of the same canyon. Quietly, patiently, through 18 different real estate transactions, Poe has reconnected all of Trail Canyon. Harold Baxstrom is delighted, because he and Poe have the same sense of land stewardship.
http://tinyurl.com/8tssg – Durango Herald

– Mesa Verde Centennial Celebrations Commence: Mesa Verde National Park’s centennial birthday gala kicked off Thursday evening with a holiday open house that drew between 2,200 and 2,500 people from across the Four Corners and Colorado. A standing-room only crowd packed into Far View Terrace elbow-to-elbow and wall-to-wall for opening festivities, which included musical performances by the Fort Lewis College brass ensemble and flutist David Nighteagle. Opening remarks were made by Fort Lewis President Brad Bartel and Larry Wiese, Mesa Verde’s superintendent.
http://tinyurl.com/cfvh2 – The Cortez Journal

– Mesa Verde Centennial Celebrations (2): With lantern light pouring from doors and windows of Cliff Palace on Wednesday night, it looked as if ancient Pueblo Indians were home for the holidays. Cliff Palace and Spruce Tree House were awash in lights and music for the first time in decades as the park kicked off a year of special events for its centennial in 2006.
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_3292703?source=rss#

-Presidio Trail Established in Downtown Tucson: t’s a pathway connecting Tucson’s past. A group of Tucsonans has convinced city leaders to paint the sidewalk, so we can have a walking tour of historic downtown. Those who depend on tourist dollars may be grateful. “When people come to Tucson, they’re very interested in our history and our background,” said Margie Cunningham, who got the idea for the Presidio Trail after she and her husband took a trip to Boston last summer and walked the freedom trail through that city’s historic downtown.
http://www.kold.com/Global/story.asp?S=4221591&nav=14RT

-Review of Deer Valley Rock Art Center (Phoenix): Tucked into the lower slopes of the Hedgpeth Hills in north Phoenix is an ancient site where native peoples gathered for centuries. Today, it’s near a modern transportation system where, during rush hour, it can feel like it takes centuries to get home.Situated just off Interstate.17 at Deer Valley Road, the Deer Valley Rock Art Center has the largest concentration of ancient petroglyphs in the metropolitan area. Left behind by Native American cultures of long ago, the 47-acre site is home to more than 1,500.petroglyphs on nearly 600 boulders. “We get a lot of families and winter visitors. Kids can come here and learn how to make designs in clay that look like petroglyphs and they can go on a petroglyph scavenger hunt,” said Peter Welsh, associate professor of anthropology at Arizona State University and director of the Deer Valley Rock Art Center.
http://tinyurl.com/82dd9 – The Arizona Republic

– Historic Preservation in Tempe: There has been fear in Tempe for years that the historic but fading Farmer/Goodwin House built in 1883 at 820 S. Farmer Ave. would be demolished. Early owner Hiram Bradford Farmer was the first professor of the Territorial Normal School, which would evolve into Arizona State University.The home has had many owners and there’s always been the fear that the old adobe house would be torn down. But when Brian Cox, of Cox James Architects of Phoenix, learned about the home, he got together with a friend who bought the house and the large lot it sits on.
http://tinyurl.com/crqmm – Arizona Republic

– Photography and Cultural Preservation, New Exhibit in Window Rock: A new photographic exhibit opened at the Navajo Nation Museum Thursday. “Visions of the People and Their Native Land” features inspirational photographs by David H. Davis and Navajo photographer Carmen Hunter. It runs through May 20, 2006. Hunter is of the Towering House People Clan, born for the Coyote People. “This is a multi-faceted project,” Davis said. In addition to preserving the Navajo culture, it serves to teach others about the traditional ways, he said.
http://www.gallupindependent.com/2005/dec/121005ntp.html

– Vernon Masayesva’s Fight for Hopi Water Rights : I first met former Hopi tribal chairman Vernon Masayesva in December 1992, when my then-wife and I were publishing a weekly newspaper in Flagstaff. Masayesva called one afternoon and said he wanted to tell me a story of great importance to his tribe. A few days later, we met at a restaurant in old downtown Flagstaff. Over the next few hours, Masayesva spun an amazing tale of the Hopis’ battle with the world’s largest coal mining company over the tribe’s most important natural resource: water.
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/issues/2005-12-01/news/dougherty.html