On Saturday July 11, 2015 Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum and the Four Corners Lecture Series presents a free lecture by Cortez historian Fred Blackburn at 2 p.m. in the Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum auditorium in Blanding.
Blackburn’s “Yucca House and Snider’s Well: The Case of a Different Cradleboard” addresses Yucca House (Aztec Spring) located southwest of Cortez, Colorado and a nearby site known as Snider’s Well. He is completing a report that investigates ownerships, excavators, developers, and interpersonal links of personalities in the Four Corners. Fred involved Watershed School students, from Boulder Colorado, in the finding and duplication of historic photographs taken in 1894. Their investigation helped solve and prove the location of Snider’s Well through photograph and description.
Fred Blackburn is an historian, an author, and an independent guide. He has written extensively about the early archaeological era of the Four Corners. He co-authored the popular “Cowboys and Cave Dwellers” with Dr. Ray Williamson, reviewing early archaeological explorations in the Grand Gulch and Mesa Verde region.
Fred has recently completed an extensive manuscript on Mesa Verde historical inscriptions and the history of expeditions at numerous archaeological sites within the park using historical inscriptions as a primary research reference.
Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum is at 660 West, 400 North, in Blanding. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday April through September. Daily admission is $5. For more information contact the museum at 435-678-2238.