Last fall, a landowner contacted The Archaeological Conservancy about a property he owned in the Village of Tijeras. He purchased some property for residential development, but later realized there was something of significance on one of the lots. This prompted a call to a local archaeologist who confirmed that there was an archaeological site on […]

The Hillsborough Archaeological District is located in the Piedmont region of North Carolina, and consists of at least four Native American sites. While artifacts have been found on the property that date back 12,000 years, the most intensive occupations span the time period from A.D. 1000 until the early 1700s, offering an opportunity to understand […]

After the Pyramid Lake Indian War in 1860 and ongoing environmental degradation resulting from mining and ranching, the Northern Paiute had to find alternative ways to make a living. One way was to settle on the outskirts of Virginia City, Nevada, which was, at the time, home to the first silver boom in the United […]

Mesa Prieta contains one of the largest collections of petroglyphs in northern New Mexico, and with the generosity and support of our members, the Conservancy recently expanded its protection of this important cultural area with the purchase of the Cottonwood Petroglyph Preserve. This two-acre parcel is situated in a rural, residential area overlooking the Rio […]

Waterways were the major highways of pre-contact America, and this was especially true in coastal areas like the Alabama Gulf Coast where people depended heavily on coastal wetlands for food, shelter, and raw materials. Native Americans left their mark on the landscape in the form of sand or shell mounds, and their knowledge of local […]

The Archaeological Conservancy has accepted a donation of a 100-acre tract of land in San Juan County, Utah from Conservancy members Ellie Caryl and Andrew McGregor, which adds to the Conservancy’s preservation of Hedley Pueblo. The pueblo, the core of the Hedley Community, was acquired in 1993 through a generous donation from Dr. Anthony Hedley. […]

The Hamilton Family Archaeological Preserve in western Nevada sits high on a talus bluff overlooking the Lahontan Reservoir, within the ancestral lands of the Numu (Northern Paiute). The site was first recorded in 1991 by Dr. Eugene Hattori, the curator of anthropology at Nevada State Museum. Hattori described it as “a series of seventy-five to […]

The Conservancy recently received the donation of a remarkably well-preserved conical mound in central Ohio known as Etna Township Mound Number 1. The mound is approximately six feet high and ninety feet in diameter, and it’s located in a wooded lot overlooking an intermittent stream. The mound was once part of a pair of mounds, […]

The Conservancy has obtained a thirty-five acre parcel northwest of Cortez, Colorado, containing Shields Pueblo, a large Ancestral Puebloan site with primary occupation dates of A.D. 1050 to 1300, and an extended occupation dating back to at least A.D. 775. Shields Pueblo is part of a concentration of prehistoric sites, some of which have been […]

Conservancy member Jerry Fetterman has donated a thirty-five-acre parcel in Colorado’s Montezuma Valley that contains significant archaeological resources. The parcel, which has been named the Yellowjacket Canyon Preserve, is located by the rim of Yellowjacket Canyon, and it borders Canyon of the Ancients National Monument. It is a short distance away from three other Conservancy preserves: […]

The Concow Basin is located in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, approximately fifteen miles east of Chico, California, and it’s the ancestral lands of the Konkow Maidu tribe. The archaeological site Butte-961, an ancient village that dates to about A.D. 1500 sits in the basin. This date is based on the analysis of projectile points that […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Chesterfield, CT | The Archaeological Conservancy and the New England Hebrew Farmers of the Emanuel Society (NEHFES) have completed the transfer of the synagogue parcel of the “NEHFES Synagogue and Creamery Site” in Chesterfield, Connecticut. This has gifted the parcel to The Conservancy, insuring the protection of the site in perpetuity. The […]

The Egg Mountain site consists of a hillside settlement that was likely occupied from the late 1700s until approximately 1820. At least a dozen cellar holes, combined with stone walls and other landscape features, suggest this was the location of a sizeable community. The site is undisturbed, and the archaeological deposits offer a picture of […]

The Conservancy recently partnered with The Conservation Fund and the clothing manufacturer Patagonia to ensure the preservation of a tract of land in south Alabama, near the city of Mobile, known as Blakeley Bluff. The tract is approximately sixty acres and is in the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta. This is the second largest delta in the […]

The Zemaitis site in western Michigan contains evidence of human occupation from the terminal Archaic through the Middle and Late Woodland periods. The site sits on a natural levee between the bank of the Grand River and a seasonal marsh, and it afforded its inhabitants a rich array of riverine and wetland resources. The levee […]

In 1890-1891, Hirsch Kaplan, who immigrated from Ukraine to New York City in 1887, led a small group of Russian-Jewish immigrants from the crowded neighborhood of Williamsburg, Brooklyn to Chesterfield, Connecticut, where they were able to purchase inexpensive farmland, a privilege forbidden them in Tsarist Russia. In the spring of 1892, these families established a […]

Longtime Conservancy member and Southwestern archaeologist Jerry Fetterman has donated a twenty-acre lot that contains a 1,200-year-old site as well as more recent ruins. The site, which is named after Fetterman, is near the former mining town of Riley in west-central New Mexico. Fetterman discovered and mapped the site during a cultural resource survey for […]

After years of negotiations between multiple parties, the Conservancy obtained the Flint Mine Hill chert quarry site. The site is located on the top of a large hill consisting of Normanskill shale and chert near Coxsackie, in southeast New York. It contains evidence of prehistoric quarrying dating from the Paleo-Indian through Woodland periods. The site […]

In 2017, Neil Arbegast approached the Conservancy about donating his ranch, which is known as the Arbegast-Tunawee. The Arbegast-Tunawee Ranch was established in the early 1930s, and it’s located in the Tunawee Canyon on the eastern foothills of the Sierra Nevada range approximately two miles northwest of the Conservancy’s Portuguese Bench Preserve, which contains a […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Chesterfield, CT | The Archaeological Conservancy and the New England Hebrew Farmers of the Emanuel Society (NEHFES) will cosign a Donation Agreement in the offices of the Connecticut State Preservation Office (SHPO) at 1:00 P.M. EDT on October 15, 2021. This agreement will gift the synagogue parcel of the “NEHFES Synagogue and […]

Eight hundred years ago smoke wafted over a small village located on a terrace next to the New River in southern West Virginia. The people living there, at what is now known as the McGraw Farm site, were the descendants of people who migrated to the New River from the Ohio River Valley centuries ago. […]

On the thin strip of land that comprises Virginia’s eastern shore lies the Arlington property, which contains important sites for understanding the region’s history from pre-contact Native American settlement through the nineteenth century. The 7.3-acre property and adjacent cemetery reside along the southern shore of Old Plantation Creek, where an open field covers the archaeological […]

The Conservancy has entered a bargain sale-to-charity purchase agreement (part donation, part purchase) with the owners of Montezuma Village, an approximately eighty-five-acre property located at the northern end of Montezuma Canyon in southeastern Utah. The Conservancy has been negotiating the acquisition of the site with several family members for the past forty years. Montezuma Village […]

The Conservancy has acquired the Sunset Ranch Petroglyphs, which are located thirty miles southeast of El Paso and a few miles north of the Mexican border in west Texas. Developer Alan Erickson has donated over 300 acres in four lots ranging in size from twenty to 120 acres, all of which are within a 300-square-mile […]

The Archaeological Conservancy’s Eastern Region Director, Kelley Berliner, as well as representatives from the Greenbrier Historical Society and West Virginia Land Trust, discuss the importance of preserving the Fort Arbuckle archaeological site in West Virginia.  Learn more about each of the organizations’ roles in the acquisition and preservation of the site, and how they plan […]

The recently launched crowdfunding campaign to acquire and preserve Arbuckle’s Fort in West Virginia is gaining momentum and the attention of the local media.  | Updated 10/7/2020  West Virginia | The Archaeological Conservancy, the West Virginia Land Trust, and the Greenbrier Historical Society launched a crowdfunding campaign at the end of June for the acquisition […]

Funds raised during the campaign will be used to acquire and preserve this colonial-era site that is currently without protections from development and destruction. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | June 29, 2020 Alderson, West Virginia | The Archaeological Conservancy, the West Virginia Land Trust, and the Greenbrier Historical Society are excited to announce the launch of […]

Simone Mound was one of the last undeveloped parcels in a growing residential area. The acquisition and preservation of this unique California mound site offers future researchers a rare opportunity to understand ancient Bay Area inhabitants and their culture.   California | Despite limitations associated with the pandemic and the subsequent shutdowns, The Archaeological Conservancy recently […]

The acquisition and preservation of this unique California property continues the vision and work of its late owner, dahinda meda.  California | Despite limitations associated with the pandemic and the subsequent shutdowns, The Archaeological Conservancy recently completed two acquisitions in the Western Region. Both properties required lengthy planning and negotiations that spanned over years. Each […]

The site was generously donated by Christopher Conley and Candace Christianson. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Ipswich, Massachusetts | A 2-acre property containing a portion of the Bull Brook II archaeological site is now permanently preserved. The site, which contains the remains of a significant Paleo-Indian occupation dating back to more than 10,000 years ago, was first […]

The Smith Family Archaeological Preserve (SFAP) was established in 2013 as the result of a generous land donation by the Adelbert Smith Family Trust. The 196 acre preserve protects more than 200 prehistoric petroglyphs and multiple features in an effort to educate and inspire the local community and others through preserving the regions prehistoric past. The […]