Grant County Archaeological Society
Photo: Disert collection, 2024.5.29, WNMU Museum
Next Meeting
Our normal meeting would fall on April 15 but this April brings us a special occasion! Archaeologists Pat Gilman and Peggy Nelson have arranged for the board of directors of the Amerind Museum to visit our area during the weekend of Saturday, April 18, through Sunday, April 19. GCAS members are invited to join them for any or all of their weekend activities. They begin with a tour of the WNMU Museum on Saturday morning, April 18, at 9:30 AM sharp (a donation to the WNMU Museum is encouraged). After the Museum tour, at about 11:30, the group drives to the Mimbres Valley where they will pull off the side of the road at the overlook for the Galaz site to talk about bulldozing sites for a few minutes. GCAS members, bring your own brown-bag lunch and join the Amerind group on the porch of the Mattocks house at the Mimbres Culture Heritage Site. After lunch the group will tour the site and the historic houses. Saturday ends with a visit to an Apache pictograph site. On Sunday, the Amerind group will visit Old Town and the Pony Hills Petroglyphs – GCAS members, bring your own brown-bag lunch for a bon voyage meal with the Amerind group before they return home.
We’ll see you there – meet some of the GCAS’s supporters and enjoy an action-packed weekend with the whole group!
Next Field Trip
Next GCAS Field Trip: Sunday, April 5, 2026, is Easter Sunday so a field trip will be deferred due to the calendar conflict. Watch this space and members, check your email inbox for upcoming field trip info.
Sign up now for a special weekend field trip Friday, May 15, 2026, in Velarde NM (near Santa Fe and Española): our field trip co-coordinator, Eduardo Argüello, has reserved May 15 for a guided field trip at the Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project. A 2-hour tour costs $55 per person and is well worth the money to see a hefty sampling of some of the MPPP’s 100,000 recorded petroglyphs. Lodging is available on your own in Santa Fe and Española; camping is also available in the area. Eduardo is investigating the locations of additional nearby petroglyph sites for a possible extra excursion on Saturday, April 16 for us to enjoy one another’s company a bit longer before returning to Silver City. Learn about the MPPP by visiting https://www.mesaprietapetroglyphs.org/ Eduardo needs a head count ASAP so please contact the GCAS at gcasnm.org@gmail.com to get on the field trip list!
News & Events
The Lizard’s Taking Shape
The joint GCAS-IFWEF Back to the Earth garden project moves ahead. Intrepid students from the Mimbres Valley’s San Lorenzo Elementary School visited the work site with their teachers to learn about the project’s purpose and inspect the ad…
February 22, 2026: Potsherd Sorting
Eleven GCAS members and a guest had a grand time on February 22 sorting through FIVE bins of orphan sherds in the GCAS’s library and adjacent lab/workroom at the Mimbres Culture Heritage Site. We are contributing these unprovenienced items to t…
February 1, 2026, GCAS Field Trip to Picture Rocks Site
The GCAS’s first field trip of 2026 to an Arenas Valley petroglyph site was an ideal way for folks to stretch their legs and enjoy a clear, cool, sunny day outdoors. Sixteen members and guests carpooled to an informal trailhead which led about …
December 7, 2025, Field Trip to Old Town
The GCAS could not have asked for better weather on our last field trip of 2025. The day was cool, crisp, clear, and sunny for 15 members and their guests to explore the archaeological site of Old Town in the southern Mimbres Valley watershed. Site S…
Meet the GCAS Board of Directors
The GCAS’s annual meeting on November 19, 2025, resulted in the election of 4 new members to our GCAS Board of Directors, each of whom will serve a 3-year term! GCAS members voted with unanimous approval to maintain a full 9-member board plus o…
November 2, 2025, Field Trip to GCAS Library
Our November 2, 2025, field trip to the GCAS library and lab to sort orphan potsherds by color succeeded in 7 members processing 1-1/2 bins of plainware, corrugated, and painted sherds. The early autumn weather was stellar and just right for inspecti…