In-Situ Autumn 2006
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In-Situ Newsletter of the Nevada Archaeological Association Vol. 10, No. 3 Autumn 2006 PRESIDENTS CORNER. Greg Seymour, NAA President Presidents Corner Our summer board meeting was a blast! It Las Vegas, Nevada. The meeting will be was held at Great Basin National Park. That held after the sessions at 5:30 PM, weekend we visited Lehman Caves and the Thursday, October 19 the first evening of cool meadows of the park at 10,000 feet the conference. All members are welcome. above sea level. The cave is a live cave that The SHPO Regional Site Stewardship is still forming. It has a long history Coordination Meeting will be held at 1:00 including work by the Civilian Conservation PM on October 19th in the conference room Corps and the Hollywood movie industry. of the Nevada State Museum and Historical Most of us went on the 1½ hour tour. How Society in Lorenzi Park. cool! If any one would like to volunteer to sit at A group of us, board members, members, the NAA table on Friday or Saturday at the and family, camped in the park campground Great Basin Conference, please let me know during the weekend. We could hear the at (702) 239-5230. Eva or I will be there as stream all night and the Stars! One night, much as possible but we would like some Dave Valentine cooked a spectacular dinner company! You can help us sell some of the using five Dutch ovens! He cooked a 3 Corners journals and talk about chicken dish, vegetables, and even a fruit archaeology. cobbler. The views were spectacular and the The 3 Corner Conference board has donated company was great. A good time was had the publication to the NAA to distribute. by all. A thanks to Steve Daron for making Copies can be purchased for $25.00. Funds the arrangements for the stay at the park. collected from the sale will be used to Our next board meeting will be held in publish next years 3 Corners proceedings. conjunction with the Great Basin Please purchase your copy by using the Anthropological Conference on October 19 order form included in this issue of In-Situ. – 22, 2006 at the Golden Nugget Hotel in 1 A live formation in Lehman Caves. Wheeler Peak 13,065 feet (3982 m) is a spectacular mountain with vehicle access to 10,000 ft. 2 NEWS FROM AFFILIATED ORGANIZATIONS Archaeo-Nevada Society (ANS) In conjunction with UNLV, Archaeo- 12, 2006 at 7 PM at the Nevada State Nevada is sponsoring a lecture on the Museum in Lorenzi Park, 700 Twin Lakes dinosaur tracks of Southern Utah by Dr. Drive. For further information regarding Jerry D. Harris, Director of Paleontology at Chapter events, write to Archaeo-Nevada Dixie State College at Johnson Farm in Society, 3930 El Camino Street, Las southwestern Utah. A field trip to Vegas, NV 89103 USA or email: Johnson’s Farm was held on September 13. [email protected] A member meeting is scheduled for October Lincoln County Chapter Elizebeth Russell The July meeting was strictly a social occasion. Members got together with friends and family to enjoy a potluck supper at Kershaw-Ryan State Park. For the August meeting Cody Tingey, Park Supervisor for Cathedral Gorge and Beaver Dam State Parks, gave a presentation on the condition of Beaver Dam State Park. He discussed the January, 2005 flood and the damage it caused and the plans for the park's refurbishing, including taking into consideration the integrating of historic and prehistoric archaeological features contained in the park's confines. On September 8th, arrangements have been made for the members met at the Lincoln County Courthouse to drive up to Bristol Mines for a guided tour of the town and mine facilities. Elko County Chapter, Nevada Archaeological Association The Elko County Chapter meets on the The existing rock walls will be covered with second Friday of the month for the rest of shotcrete and a concrete floor lain. To meet 2006 at 7:00pm at a variety of locations. code, several inches of the dirt floor had to Due to scheduling conflicts times may be removed. The Elko County Chapter was change. Please check each month. Everyone approached to do archaeological excavation is welcome to attend. For further prior to this work to see if the floor information contact Donna Murphy at sediments contain artifacts that might shed [email protected]. light on the use and history of the building. In August, the Elko County Chapter The single story structure was built around participated in test excavations in the 1878 out of native stone with a full basement of the old Free Mason's Lodge/ basement. At various times, the building Tuscarora Tavern. Elko County was given housed a drug store, and a saloon was title to the building and grant money sought operated in the basement. In September for its preservation. A grant was awarded 1884, the Masonic committee purchased the from the Nevada Cultural Affairs building $1400.00. The first meeting of Department for the first phase of the Tuscarora Masonic lodge in the hall was on restoration project. The next phase of November 29, 1884 (Torrence 1944). renovation is the upgrading the basement. 3 Tuscarora Tavern References Torrence, C.W. 1944 History of Masonry in Nevada. Grand Lodge, F&AM of Nevada. Southern Nevada Rock Art Association The Southern Nevada Rock Art Association estimated at 1,000 to 3,000 years old. Some will meet on September 21, starting at 7 pictures at www.farwestern.com/rockart. p.m., at the Las Vegas Library, 833 Las Admission is free and anyone interested in Vegas Boulevard North. Amy Gilreath of rock art is invited to attend. For additional Far Western Anthropological Research information, contact the SNRAA voice mail Group will talk about the different styles of at (702) 897-7878, or send e-mail inquiries rock art found in the Coso Range, which is to [email protected]. in California. Most of the petroglyphs are . Nevada Rock Art Foundation News Alanah Woody, PhD, RPA Executive Director 226 California Ave. Reno, NV 89509 775.323.6723 tel/fax, 775.315.5497cell The NEVADA ROCK ART FOUNDATION is back working at the Lagomarsino Canyon Petroglyph site as of September 18 through October 15. This multi-year project is one of the Foundation’s “Signature Projects” and aside from a small grant from the USFS & NEA, this massive project (~10,000 panels) is fully funded by donations and work is done exclusively through volunteer labor – from the PI to the office workers. One special event associated with the project this year is that a small contingent will be visiting from China to observe our field documentation practices. Also in September -October we’ll be back in the Dry Lakes Basin and with ongoing support from the BLM Carson City FO, we’ll be training volunteers and documenting several sites threatened by the growth of nearby Sparks. The Dry Lakes Basin area is also the first area where NRAF had Site Stewards visiting on a regular basis. Sali Underwood (SHPO) is now coordinating the stewardship effort statewide, good news for all of us. The Site Stewardship program puts extra “eyes and ears” for Land Managers out into the wilds of Nevada. If you’re already visiting archaeological sites of any kind, you really should be making those visits count. 4 This fall, NRAF will be heading south again to document five rock art sites, which are eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, in November (11/2-11/22) on property owned by The Howard Hughes Corporation (THHC). The sites are very complex and in at least one case, the vandalism has been so intensive that it will make recording the rock art very, very difficult. But as usual, the landscape setting is absolutely magnificent and the rock art spectacular. And, in keeping with our commitment to do whatever needs to be done to help at Little Red Rock, NRAF members have become Site Stewards in the only program where private land owners are working with a volunteer group to monitor sites on their property. Under the direction of Sali Underwood (SHPO) and Mary Peters (LRR Site Steward Coordinator), NRAF members are showing that when it’s time to “walk the walk,” NRAF is there, doing what we can to help protect rock art throughout the state, regardless of where it’s located. For more information on volunteer opportunities and activities of the NEVADA ROCK ART FOUNDATION, go to www.nevadarockart.org SHPO News Alice Baldrica, Deputy SHPO For more information on any of these topics call Alice Baldrica at 775-684-3444 or e-mail her at [email protected]. Introducing Karyn de Dufour Hello readers, I'm Karyn de Dufour the new investigation paperwork, the lead can review and Data Manager at SHPO. I wanted to introduce comment on the investigation in the database. myself and tell everyone about some exciting Once again, this data can then be converted into new developments we're working on. an undertaking at which point, after SHPO We've been working with the BLM state office receives the project paperwork, they can to incorporate a new application into the comment on the project in the database as well. information management process. CRMTracker Furthermore, data entered into CRMTracker is a web-based tool that collects information will result in a spatial update of NVCRIS where about projects as part of the work management sites will be plotted by UTM and surveys will be steps themselves.