Grant County Archaeological Society
The Grant County Archaeological Society works and raises funds to preserve and protect prehistoric, historic, and culturally significant places and objects by offering educational and aesthetic programs to the public; and by developing meaningful collaboration among governmental agencies, educational institutions, museums, archeological organizations, professional and amateur archaeologists, and other individuals.
Pre-pandemic programs will continue post-pandemic. Since 1928 GCAS volunteers have offered our membership monthly field trips to archaeological/historic sites & monthly meetings featuring educational speakers. The programs GCAS volunteers have offered the general public since 1999 include: weekly guided tours of the Mattocks Site to local residents & visitors from all of NM and the US; donations/grant awards to graduate-level students of Anthropology/Archaeology; hosting professional archaeological field schools; providing annual open-air experiential workshops at the Mimbres Culture Heritage Site (avg. 500 students per year from 7 local schools); and leading local students in Junior Site Steward and YCC projects. Our volunteers present educational materials & activities at public festivals & other events in our area. Local newspapers & professional publications have reported on the GCAS’s successful outcomes from these programs.
The GCAS submits formal comments to relevant Environmental Impact Statements and supports other similarly-situated avocational archaeological organizations throughout our area. The GCAS’s current priority project is to raise funds to develop one of the historic 19th-Century adobe buildings at the Mimbres Culture Heritage Site into the Mimbres Archaeological Research and Education Center, where GCAS volunteers will continue offering to local students and the general public the range of educational programs described above; expand our group’s archaeological research library, archives, and artifact collections; and construct an archaeological research laboratory for professional archaeologists and their students when they visit our region for field schools, archaeological excavations, or general research.
1928
85-6009411