On June 20 I was out at Pueblo San Marcos in the Galisteo Basin south of Santa Fe, considered one of the largest pre-Columbian settlements in the American Southwest. Students involved with SAGE, the Summer of Applied Geophysical Experience, a program hosted by Los Alamos National Laboratories to give hands-on field experience to college-level students of geophysics, were working at the Pueblo San Marcos June 20 & 21. About 40 students from colleges and universities from all over the world receive a combination of classroom instruction and field training by about four professors.
For the past few years, SAGE has used the Conservancy’s San Marcos Pueblo preserve to give the students experience in four different non-invasive technologies that reveal information about what lies beneath the surface of the site without disturbing the surface. The students get the training and the Conservancy gets the information. Many of these students will eventually find employment in mineral extraction industries and this gives us an excellent chance to instill in them a concern for archaeological resources.Here (pic) is a small group of students getting ready to use remote sensing technology at the pueblo.
After checking out the students at work, I headed over to the Cerrillos Hills State Park visitor center where the Friends of the Park were holding their annual barbeque, with a special recorded presentation by the late, great Bill Baxter, local historian and preservationist extraordinaire, on the geology & history of the Cerrillos Hills. The place was packed and we all thought about the huge difference Bill made in helping preserve the area’s important sites, as San Marcos site steward for years, and helping establish the Cerrillos Hills Park, among other important endeavors. We miss you, Bill!
Tamara Stewart, Southwest Region Special Projects
Learn more about San Marcos Pueblo at Galisteo Basin Archaeological Sites Protection Act , American Museum of National History Research
