Dirt under the fingernails, the fragrance of sage wafting in the air and the thrill of discovering an ancient artifact have made participating in a real archaeology dig at Crow Canyon Archaeological Center a popular draw.
Southwest Colorado is a mecca for archaeology buffs, with headliners Mesa Verde National Park, Hovenweep and Canyons of the Ancients national monuments and the Anasazi Heritage Center. In the middle of it all sits Crow Canyon, located just west of Cortez, a lesser-known institution that has spent the last 28 years conducting major archaeological research, teaching thousands of area schoolchildren and teachers and building bridges between the archaeological community and Native Americans.
Since its founding in 1983, the center has conducted 11 major multiyear archaeological excavations, such as Sand Canyon Pueblo in Canyons of the Ancients and Goodman Point Pueblo at Hovenweep. They focused primarily on the Pueblo peoples circa A.D. 750 to 1300, learning that weather conditions, diminishing natural resources and unsustainable population sizes probably contributed to their dramatic departure.
This spring, the organization started a new three-year research project about the significant Basketmaker III settlements in the Indian Camp Ranch subdivision going back even further, to A.D. 500 to 750.
“We’re involved in one of the most exciting things happening in the Four Corners region,” Supervisory Archaeologist Shanna Diederichs said. “For the last 20 years, the 13th-century exodus of the ancestral Puebloans was one of the largest archaeology questions on the plate. Now we have some answers for that.
“The next big question is ‘Where did they come from?’ We won’t know all the factors that led to that depopulation until we look at their initial settlement here.”
While the project eventually will survey much of the subdivision, located just north of Crow Canyon, this summer’s dig focused on an 8-acre area named the Dillard Site, after site owner Jane Dillard.
“It’s the earliest confirmed Basketmaker III great kiva in Southwest Colorado, and it dates to A.D. 650,” Diederichs said. “We found a wet-laid masonry wall. The Pueblo people didn’t start using masonry for another 250 years. It would have been the largest structure these people would have entered in their entire lives.”
Many of the technological advancements of the ancestral Puebloan era started in that period.
“It’s the rise of intensive agriculture of starchy maize,” she said. “They added beans and turkey to their diet. True pottery was invented so they could cook the beans. And the bow and arrow improved hunting over the atlatl (spear thrower) and the spear.”
OUT OF THE CLASSROOM
Archaeological projects at Crow Canyon have two purposes: to learn more about the vanished people who once called this area home and to teach people of all ages about the archaeological process with a hands-on approach. Digs go more slowly as “crews” of program participants and interns come and go, but the thrill of discovery is always fresh.
“Recent studies have shown that American students learn science best outside of the classroom,” Crow Canyon President and CEO Deborah Gangloff said in the fall 2011 center newsletter, “and we have proven that each and every year at Crow Canyon. We often hear from our former students who have pursued a career in the social or natural sciences.”
It has become a popular tradition for students from area schools to take field trips ranging from half-day to two-day periods to the center.
“It was really hard to wait because we were so excited,” 9-year-old Morgan Mott, a fourth-grader from Dolores Elementary School, said during a recent trip. “It’s kind of like vacation, but an educational vacation. You get to pretend you’re an archaeologist — or a Puebloan.”
Kaia Jay was excited to learn the Pueblo people were her ancestors, and Taybree Grider now is considering becoming an archaeologist when she grows up.
All three agreed the skills needed to survive as an ancestral Puebloan aren’t easy.
“We tried to start a fire by rubbing two sticks together,” Taybree said. “We just got a lot of smoke.”
And nobody managed to hit the fake turkey with the atlatl.
STAYING SOLVENT IN A RECESSION
With giving down after three tough economic years, many nonprofits have scaled back or had to close their doors altogether. Through a combination of savvy fundraising, diverse funding sources and committed supporters, Crow Canyon has managed to beat the odds.
“We’ve actually been trending up over the last few years,” said Gayle Prior, vice president of finance and administration, who has been at Crow Canyon for 17 years. “We had temporary layoffs at the end of 2008 and beginning of 2009, but we were able to bring everyone back full time.”
An endowment fund that has grown from $3 million in 1994 to more than $13 million in 2011 provides a solid financial foundation.
Crow Canyon’s $4.2 million income comes from a variety of sources:
35 percent from programs, including school and adventure trips.
29 percent from about 700 individual contributors.
18 percent from foundations and grants.
16 percent from investments in the endowment fund.
2 percent from other income, including its gift shop.
“Our foundation support has almost doubled since 2005,” Prior said. “The Colorado Historical Society has been funding active projects for as long as I’ve been here, and those dollars come from gaming in Blackhawk and Central City. The National Endowment for the Humanities and National Science Foundation have also been consistent funders.”
One concern is continuing cuts in public school budgets, which is hurting some schools’ abilities to take field trips to the center.
“We offer 40 percent scholarships to all local kids,” Prior said. “We get a lot of kids from Durango, just under 250 in 2011 alone. We actually have better participation from Durango than we do from Cortez.”
The scholarship funding comes from individual contributors.
One financial area put on hold when the economic crash hit in 2008 was a planned capital campaign to upgrade Crow Canyon’s facilities.
“This is a 30-year-old campus,” Prior said. “We were looking at revamping the master plan for safety, going green, being more of a 21st century campus. We want to be more kid-friendly, have more outdoor classrooms.”
Crow Canyon’s board of directors will create a new strategic plan in January, when the capital campaign may be resuscitated.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Crow Canyon will make its national television debut in 2013, with filming taking place next year, Powell said.
“We’re partnering with Oregon Public Broadcasting,” she said. “We’re one of four archaeological places chosen for their ‘Time Team America’ program. Their group of experts comes and solves an archaeological problem.”
The center also plans to expand its educational offerings, teaching pre- and Pueblo history at the elementary level and a science, mathematics and technology program at the middle and high school levels.
At the most fundamental level, the center will continue in its mission to rewrite the history of the Southwest “in multiple voices,” Powell said.
“Everyone’s history matters. When interpretations differ, instead of arguing right or wrong, have the speakers step out and tell their story. It will lead to so much more tolerance.”
