1st Field Session at Grand Canyon/ Parashant National Monument

So I’ve finally made it out for my week in the field! And what a week it was! We (Myself, my boss Glendee Ane, and my coworker Jen M.) started out with a nice liesurely drive to St. George, Utah. In St. George we had lunch at a wonderful little place called Cafe Rio’s, and then got some gas and snacks. We then took the 2-2 1/2 hour drive out to where we would be based on BLM Road 101. We spent most of the first day getting there so by the time we actually set up camp, we were not able to do any survey.

   The next day was the start of actual survey. This consisted of Placing a person on either side of the road about 20 meters away. After photos of the road, and GPS points f the start were taken, all that was left to do was walk. Our first day we walked about 6-7 miles. If anything was found, such as stone tools or historic artifacts (ie: cans, gas tanks, car parts, glass…) this had to be documented with gps points taken. I quickly found out that, while this is an interesting process, stoping can take up a lot of time. We found 2-3 sites the first day and each took around 30 mins-1hour to completely document. This same process continued throughout the week. We gained extra momentum when a 4th archaeologist (Jen D.) came out and helped. Total, we hiked about 30 mi. or more.

   We actually finished early and were able to leave on Friday. This turned out to be a bit of a hassle,when we ended up having 2 flat tires! Other than that there were no great hiccups to the trip. We saw and heard signs of a lot of wildlife (Deer, cows, feral russian boar, mountain lion, bobcat, and fox, to name a few). But, other than the cows, a few horses, lizards and birds, we really didn’t see much wildlife up close and in person. We hiked hills and valleys, drainages, canyons, and sand dunes. There were a great many cactus (cholla, prickly pear, goat’s head) pinion and juniper pines, as well as many other types of vegetation. The weather was quite nice, around 95-100 during the day and 60s-70s at night. Despite these realatively cool temperatures, I did end up with a bit of heat exhaustion the first day.

   Overall, the trip was great, I learned a lot, and I felt like I got closer to my coworkers. Something about being in the wilderness always brings you closer to those you share it with.

Cultural Resources Internship Lake Mead: A Closer Look

Allrighty Sports Fans! The Archaeology is really heating up, in a manner of speaking… The temperatures for the Boulder City/ Las Vegas area have moved from low 90s to low 100s in a matter of days. I guess it’s a good thing I’ve been working inside mostly. I have a bit more time to discuss the details of my job now.

   As I mentioned before I’m going through the site files for LMNRA and trying to compile a database that includes our most important, and our most endangered sites (Rock Art, Abandoned Mines, NAGPRA, ARPA), as well as sites that have been looted or otherwise disturbed in the past. This database will then be used to inform the Ranger Dept. where they should concentrate their efforts on in case of future criminal activities.

   Now when I say I’m going through the site files, I mean every site file! Lake Mead is  a GIANT entity and we have hundreds, if not thousands, of site files. Needless to say this part of the job has its ups and downs. There are periods of time throughout the day where this seems pretty mindless and boring, but there are also quite a few files that are extremely interesting. One such file included the story of a family, who found a human burial in the park, and were allowed to go with the archaeologists the next day to assist in the excavation of the remains! Obviously this was before NAGPRA!

   I think my favorite sites are the Rock Art. They all have to be drawn, so many of the file have great drawings of prehistoric and historic panels.

   Though my time in the office can be lots of fun I’m really looking forward to the field. My first session starts next week the 20th of June! I just can’t wait to get out and about!

Tune in later this week, and I’ll probably have more photos on here!

Ryan

Pack ‘em up Head ‘em out! 2011 Lake Mead Internship

Over the past few years I’ve played around with this blog as a way to express myself…usually through poetry, but occasionally in other ways. Last summer I attempted (‘                                                        ry poorly) to chronicle my experience at a summer archaeological field school. I’m about to again embark for the American Southwest (this time as an archaeological field tech intern at Lake Mead National Recreation Area) and wanted to try once more to chronicle the summer’s events.

Ill start out with a description of the program for those of you who are interested. From the Internship website: 

The Cultural Resources Diversity Internship Program provides a career exploration opportunity for diverse undergraduate and graduate students in historic preservation/cultural resources work. The program places interns with National Park Service park units and administrative offices, other federal agencies, state historic preservation offices, local governments, and private organizations. Intern sponsors provide work experiences that assist interns with building their resumes in this field.

This program serves two purposes:

(1) Diverse undergraduate and graduate students gain exposure to and experience in the historic preservation/cultural resources field.

(2) National Park Service and partnership organizations have the opportunity to meet promising young people who might choose to work in the field.

Internships are offered during the summer (10 weeks). Projects include editing publications, planning exhibits, participating in archeological excavations, preparing research reports, cataloguing park and museum collections, providing interpretive programs on historical topics, developing community outreach, and writing lesson plans based on historical themes.

 

For my specific internship I’ll be working at Lake Mead National Recreation Area. In addition to working as a general field tech, I’ll also have a specific project. I believe my project involves identifying threats to specific archaeological sites and strategizing ways to mitigate these threats. I’ll update this as I go along though.

 

So Far i’ve been packing up for the trip and getting various stuff I need but don’t have. We leave about 12:00 pm on Tuesday, and our first stop is just west on St. Louis. Keep checking back here for updates. I’ll try my best to keep this going about every week, but I probably wont have much access to internet during my time out there.

Ryan