Tours and Meetings

Campus Tour



A certain to remain nameless individual has been complaining that they don't understand some of the places that I talk about around Crow Canyon due to the fact that they have no visuals. So I have taken a few pictures to give said individual and others a better perspective on the campus. It is not inclusive, but shows some of the main highlights.



...The Hogans (my soon to be past home...I get moved to the Intern Cabins next week)



...The Gates Building (where there are offices, internet connection, classrooms, and labs)



...The Circle (in front of the Lodge and where the kiddies are dropped off)



...The Lodge (sleeping quarters for many of the guests and the kitchen)




...Simulation Excavation (self-explanatory)





...Pueblo Learning Center (for Pueblo Lifestyles module)




...Pithouse (under construction...but for the Basketmaker Lifestyles)



...Atlatls (Basketmaker Lifestyles)

I hope that you all now have a better understanding of this place. If you think that there is something missing let me know and I'll take a picture and add it.

Driver's Ed and Goodman Point Pueblo

Monday was a day off from teaching for many of the educators. This meant that it was the perfect time for the other newbies and myself to take our 15-passenger van driving test. For the morning we got to go back to driver's ed and learn about the staggering roll over rate for these vehicles and then take them out for a test drive. No rollovers to rate although a few people received a collective "D" on their brake checks :~) (Not me all you evil people!)

In the afternoon, the research staff were so kind to take a large quantity of the education staff out to the site that Crow Canyon is working on for the next 5 years and where our students will be excavating starting in May. It was nice to get a view of the layout and to learn about it from the experts, as we will be giving our own site tours in the coming weeks. This site is huge and kiva dominated (with 107 recorded kivas and 42 different sites that have 56 contemporaneous events linked to them).

Semi-Annual Meeting

Every year, Crow Canyon hosts two meets were patrons and board members come to hold meetings and discuss the going-ons of this place. This Semi-Annual meeting contains talks and outings. I managed to hitch a ride on the Research Committee's "Mystery Day Trip." This mystery trip entailed a van ride out to the Ute Mountain Ute's reservation were we got to see a few spectacular Pueblo III (AD 1150 to 1300) sites.

The first site that we visited was Moqui Springs. This site affords a great view of...



...the Mesa tops (the rocks are Mama and Baby),



...Chimney Rock (the protruding rock formation in the background. Sorry the picture can't be closer),

...Ship Rock (in New Mexico),



...and the Sleeping Ute (the mighty Ute Warrior that will awaken and defeat the enemies of the Utes when they need him).




This site had some fantastic black on white pottery sherds and some nifty slate rocks (bluish with dark bands in them). There were also some lithics and numerous kivas and roomblock remains. This is one of the many sites were you need to use your imagination to see what was once there as everything has since tumbled down and none of the original structures are still standing.





From Moqui Springs, the convoy headed a few miles further in land to Cowboy Wash (not the famous cannibal site, but within the same area). This site was contemporaneous with Moqui Springs. The site though was lived in for a time, then abandoned, lived in again, abandoned, etc. in conjunction with when there was water available in the wash that runs through it.







After lunch, a few people decided to return to the hotel, but the majority of us continued on to one last site, Yucca House. This site is considered to be one of the three largest communities in the area (with Goodman Point Pueblo and Sand Canyon). Many archaeologists also consider this site to be a Chacoan outlier because it contains a Great House with is a signature Chaco feature. The pottery sherds that were found during a site survey by Crow Canyon find this anomalous due to the fact that all of the pottery sherds found at the sites date to after the Chaco influence (which ran from about AD 1050 to 1180). The site went around in a giant horseshoe with the Great House in the middle and a huge tower and mini-Great Kiva off to the side.

This meeting was a little different than all of the previous meetings in that someone decided that it would be an excellent idea to have a traditional Pueblo meal at the culmination of the three days of meeting. This meant that different Pueblo Indians (form Acuma, Taos, Zuni, Hopi, Santa Clara, and Afognak (Alaskan)) came and brought or cooked here, native dishes. This turned out to be a great feast with various foods that many of you would have liked to try. For me, not eating mammals and all, I had a lot of bread and the token Irish potato salad. The menu included, Red Chile with Pork, Posole, Chicos with Elk, Buffalo roast, Sea Loin Stew, Bowhead Whale, Piki Bread, Wild Salmonberry Jam, Sopa, Little Sisters, and many other different (and delicious if the empty platters are any indication) delicacies.




I helped to make traditional cookies.




Meet Purple Crow. I won him for finding the misplaced Posole. And before everyone gets on my case for the name: Purple is what I called him. Margie who gave him to me added the "Crow" part cause we're at Crow Canyon. So despite the fact that he's a purple dinosaur, he's name remains Purple Crow.

Multiple long updates of this blog are tiring...so cau to you all. Show me that you appreciate the updates by leaving a comment.

Passover and Colorado Academy

Passover

Shaine, the Intern coordinator for the Education Department, decided to host a Seder for all the Jewish people at Crow Canyon. Ironically this mainly consisted of the temporary employees (namely myself, Tayla - the four monther, and Ronnie, Josie the eight monther's husband). Shaine and Sidney (one of the IT guys) are the only other Jews here. The Seder was very untraditional, but was quite good. We picked and chose what we wanted to read from the Haggadah and then ate (turkey and numerous non-yeasty fixings). It was the best meal I had all Passover long (there's not much in the Crow Canyon kitchen that doesn't contain yeast, flour, wheat, or something else of that nature).



Colorado Academy

I finally got to work with my mentor at Crow Canyon, Becky. She wanted to wait until I'd been here a while so that I could teach all of her classes and she could sit back in the back of the class and cause problems. We ended up splitting the teaching, but I took the lead for a few of the modules.

Our kids this week hailed from Colorado Academy in Denver, Colorado. There were 64 fifth grades that came and were thus broken up into three different groups. Becky and I worked with the Green group.

A nice changed to the generally monotonous schedule, was that this group requests to go to Hovenweep National Monument ever year. So Tuesday morning we set out for these amazing Pueblo III ruins. The nice thing about the ruins at Hovenweep is that they are still standing so the amateur archaeologist doesn't need to completely rely on their imagination to decipher where the buildings once stood.







The trip to Mesa Verde this week was quite chaotic. We got a late start due to picture taking of the tykes right when we were suppose to be heading out. Due to the fact that all 64 kids, 6 chaperones, and 3 educators (one short) were headed to the Park on the same day, we needed to take two large buses. The kids were broken up into their bus groups, which did not correspond to their education groups (red, blue, and green), therefore the educators only had about a third of the kids that they'd been working with during the beginning of the week. Since we were one educator short, I was re-shuffled and ended up working with Shaine and Becky was left to rule over 33 kids with the help of the class teacher (who was good at getting the kids to listen).
It was an interesting experience to have some many kids, a third that neither Shaine nor I had worked with for the whole week. They kids for the most part were really good. It was only on the way up to Mesa Verde that I was considering strangling some of them. The kids on my bus liked to sing all those annoying songs like '99 bottles of Beer on the Wall," and "Ol' McDonald's Farm," and weird ones that they made up. It was all fine until the bus driver reminded the kids that they never made it past 93 bottles of beer on the wall. So to prove him wrong, the kids (a few very determined ones) decided to make it all the way to 0. Just imagine switchbacks leading through a beautiful park with the soundtrack of "....take one down and pass it around...76 bottles of beer on the wall..." The chaperones and Shaine kept taking the microphone and pointing out sights of interest or random non-sensical information in an effort to distract the singers. Eventually they gave up and joined in. About the time I was ready to resort to riddles, we arrived. At lunch I gave out riddles and murder mysteries in an effort to avoid a repeat performance for the trip home. It worked in that they didn't sing, but every three seconds it was "Robby! I got it. The man was blind..." or "Robby! What's the answer...I give up" If was fun actually and it helped me to get to know some of the other kids that I hadn't worked with previously.

To make the trip even more chaotic, we were doing everything in reverse order so that the other group and us didn't overlap. That meant that we saw the cliff dwellings first (the older times periods) and the younger stiff (pithouses and roomblocks) later in the day. To go on Ruins road using takes 1 1/2 - 2 hours, but due to the bus breaking down at lunch for an hour we only had 45 minutes to accomplish this. It became..."Everyone off the bus...isn't it pretty...alright that was 30 seconds, enough looking...back on the bus."

Needless to say it was a hectic day. But in the end I think that it turned out well. The kids were great, we got to cram a lot of information into their brains, and I had a good conversation with a really bright 10 year old.

Dry Creek and Riverview

I added some pictures of people in today's update, as a few people are wondering why there are only landscapes in Colorado...besides I thought you'd all like to see what some of the little devils look like.

Two groups came through Crow Canyon this week, one for a three day program and one for a day and a half program.

Dry Creek Dolphins

At the beginning of the week, I worked with Paul to help teach the students from Dry Creek Elementary (located somewhere near Denver) about the Ancestral Puebloans. The modules were the same as they've been since I got here, except for one nice change: Cliff Palace, the largest cliff dwelling at Mesa Verde National Park was finally open for tourists to see. The park Service closes it down in the winter. They almost didn't open it this year too cause there's a Great Horned Owl roosting in one of the upper windows. The Owl is on the protected species list so there was a fight between the archaeologists and the biologists over what to do. I guess they decided to compromise and see if less tours pissed the little guy off...and if not then I think they're going to add more back in. But the point is I got to see the largest cliff dwelling ever found! Pretty nifty.


Ranger Duff...Our very hyper, possibly insane, but knowledgeable and friendly Ranger Guide


Paul, the educator I was working with and Becky, my mentor at Crow Canyon


Kara, Carly, and Nicole...some of the kids that I worked with


Bergen walking down one of the wider stairwells






Cliff Palace is similar to Spruce Tree House (the pictures I have posted from before) except that it is larger and not so high up on the cliff face. The Park Service was so kind to put in a stairwell down to see it (this stairwell is not for the claustrophobic as it's about one foot wide at some places). There are approximately 150 rooms and I believe 26 kivas and the town probably housed 120-150 citizens year round, but it was considered the Mecca of the area. It is thought that people from the neighboring dwellings and villages came to cliff Palace to socialize or hold ceremonies, etc.

So that was my exciting adventure for the week. The Park Service has also opened up Balcony House. Hopefully I'll get to go on a tour of that cliff dwelling as well before I leave here. Can you believe that I've been here for a month already? Time is really going by fast.

Riverview Elementary

Hailing from Durango, CO (all of 45 minutes from here), Riverview Elementary came for a day and a half visit to lovely Crow Canyon. So we skipped Windows into the Past (the introduction course, which they actually did at their school last week) and completely the other three modules (Simulated Excavation, Basketmaker Lifestyles, and Pueblo Lifestyles). I was working with Lew again, who is great in the co-teaching department, so I got to teach part of every class.

We had a little bit of excitement when one of the kids banged his head on the Pueblo door, effectively causing a gash that required 4 stitches. The ironic thing, was that this kid cam eto Crow Canyon with stitches on the same side of his face. The educators all discussed it and decided that either this kid was just incredibly unlucky or he needs glasses. The moral of the story is that if you're going to go through a door that is raised off the ground and small to begin with, take your baseball cap off so you can see where you're going. The kids fine by the way...so don't worry. :~)

Other

Today I learned that meeting are a complete waste of time. Since all the schools that were here went home at 1 pm, the Research and Education administration decided to call everyone together to discuss the upcoming field season (can't wait it starts in two weeks). We had three items on the agenda and it took 2 hours and 45 minutes to get through them. Besides the huge amount of time wasted, we didn't accomplish anything...or at least nothing that I could discern from people's statements. It was a lot of I think this...but I like it this way...but my way's better....etc. I think the fourth graders that come visit us could get more done in half the time then we accomplished today. Just a side note to everyone that holds meetings...don't stray from your point and keep meetings short, especially if you're going to call them on Friday afternoons when people really just want to go home.

To everyone that is Jewish out there, Happy Passover (I know I'm two days late in saying it, but it's the thought that counts)! Here's to next Wednesday when I can once again eat the yummy brownies that the dining hall serves. :~)

I got my confirmation from Birthright the other week meaning that Em and I are officially headed to Israel in the 6th of June. I found out that my return ticket is void after 3 months so that means I won't be able to do the Kibbutz thing this time around. Maybe I will get back there in the future when I don't have time restrictions. Em and I are planning on touring the Middle East and parts of Africa. Does anyone know anyone in and/or around Israel, Egypt, Jordan, etc... that wouldn't mind some weary travelers crashing at their place for a day or two?

So that is the news of the week. Stay tuned next week (or maybe a little sooner)....same place....same time....same random ramblings.

Exploration

Taking everyone's advice, I decided to see a little bit of the area this weekend instead of saying at Crow Canyon and watching the leaves blow in the wind. After the snow that we had three days ago, the weather cleared up and was a wonderful 70 degrees or so with a nice wind, making it perfect weather to explore in.

Saturday morning started with me moving from Hogan 10, my home for the past three weeks, to Hogan 5, my home for the next two weeks (then it's on to the Intern Cabins with me). Apparently, you can't have sixth graders off by themselves (all of 10 meters from the other cabins), so they had me move up to the cabin on the hill and allowed the kids to take over my nice centrally located cabin. But hey, it means electricity for another few weeks....I guess I can't complain that much.

Next on Saturday's agenda, fixing the flat tire I acquired about two weeks ago (don't worry I wasn't driving on it flat...I filled it with air everytime I went somewhere :~) A stupid nail caused a slow leak to form. It's the same tire that I've had to fix three times previous so I'm beginning to think that it's cursed. Let's see how long this patch last.





Finally, I made it out to Sand Canyon National Monument, which is actually very close to Crow Canyon (they excavated it a few years back). I was a little disappointed with the site as I thought that a lot of the ruins would still be intact and you would be able to differentiate where the different roomblocks, towers, and kivas, etc. where once situated. Instead, it looks like the dump yard for sandstone bricks. None of the buildings are very recognizable and I wonder how the archaeologists came out there and were able to determine what was there. Even without clear ruins, it was a beautiful area (wooded with a great cliff view at the end) and I spent sometime wandering around and sketching a bit.

Saturday gave way to Sunday and...

My new sunglasses (gotta love Walmart in a town with nothing else)...



Myself...



and Mark, one of the maintenance people at Crow Canyon, set out for Arches National Monument in Utah. Think Red Rock park in Vegas, meets the Painted Desert in Arizona (or is it New Mexico?)...it's gorgeous.

We hiked through "Park Avenue"




past the "Three Gossips"



to the "Court House" (picture didn't take sorry) and then walked back up the road like idiots (idoits for Amy and Ezra) thinking that it was a faster route back (turns out it's about twice as long...oh well). The rest of the day when we saw someone walking on the road we'd say, "Look at those idiots....what are they doing?"

After this nice little hike, we continued on our trek a bit and drove around the little loop that passes a few of the other main outlooks. We took a side detour to see "Delicate Arch."



Eventually we came to the end of the road, "The Devil's Garden." What a great name. I'm not sure what it was referring to though since nothing on the mile trek in looked remotely sinister. I assume someone was just having fun when they decided on the name of the location. There were a couple of really neat looking arches at the end of the short hike. There was an Elder Hostel group that was at the park and they were hiking in with us. It was cool to see this 70 or 80 year old man taking his time climbing the hill to see the arches. I was thinking that I hope that I'm in good enough shape to do that when I'm his age. Props to him and the other Elder hikers.




The last stop of the day was to "Double Arch." We actually climbed into the window area of this arch which is really two that was fused together. It's quite spectacular.




I would have had a few more pictures to post, but it seems that my dying camera battery decided to not actually take the pictures and store them. Somewhere in the process about 10 pictures disappeared...guess I'll have to go back sometime and retake them.

Hope you all enjoyed your little vicarious visit to Arches National Park...please come again.