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In an effort to attract public interest in Arizona’s many unique archaeological sites, March is Archaeology Month. Multiple locations across the state offer free special events designed to promote appreciation of the state’s irreplaceable treasures. One of the events that caught my attention was a rare behind-the-scenes tour of the Western Archaeological and Conservation Center (which is not normally open to the public).

WACC is one of four archaeology centers that the National Park Service established to provide crucial resources to parks, monuments, and other sites. Not every park has archaeologists, conservators, or archivists on staff—nor can they afford to—yet all parks have collections and artifacts. Not all artifacts or collections are archaeological or pre-historic, there are items ranging from botanical and geologic to furnishings, artwork to correspondence, maps and photographs.

It is WACC’s job to assess the needs of various locations in the Inter-mountain Region (Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Montana, and Wyoming) and to curate, preserve, rehabilitate, and even store collections, artifacts, and archives. Of the 70 plus locations under NPS jurisdiction in the region, 50 of them have artifacts and collections in storage at WACC. Most of that information was relayed to us in the introduction along with one other item of interest; there are currently some human remains in storage at the facility that are awaiting repatriation to the proper tribal entities. It was emphasized that the remains were not visible and would not be part of the tour, out of respect for the dead (and the living).

The tour consisted of short presentations in each of the three departments: Archives, Collections and the Conservation Labs. In each area a few noteworthy pieces had been pulled out of storage and placed on display. In Archives, staff is in the process of digitizing thousands of records including 300,000 unique photographs and images. As is usual with the Park Service, the department is understaffed and underfunded so some projects have no completion date in sight. There were several items on display; most notably, a military roll call report signed by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer (not General, by the way—he was only brevetted a major general of volunteers during the Civil War).

Leaving Archives our group of about twenty was herded down the hall to the Conservation Labs. The first room was occupied with a large collection of Native American soft-wares (moccasins, baskets, and clothing) recently donated to Grand Teton National Park by the Rockefeller family. Most of the pieces seemed to be in remarkably good shape but it’s the Lab’s job to assess the pieces,—then clean, repair and stabilize them. Lab staff emphasized that these items are not valued for their artistry (though some were quite stunning) but for the cultural information they possess. In most cases the Lab’s repairs are limited to those which prevent further damage of the artifact, not full restoration. Staff elaborated that sometimes damage is a vital part of the artifact’s story, for instance holes or tears that occurred during battle.

In the second Lab work was underway to preserve WACC’s own collection of pottery, much of which was found in the early to mid-1900s. Many techniques have changed since the early days of archaeology in this country, including methods of excavation and preservation. As with most scientific disciplines, ways of extracting information have been refined, with even tiny particles such as pollen now yielding important details. In recognition of the ongoing improvements in methodology many sites are no longer fully excavated; sections are purposely left untouched so that future archaeologists will have a chance to employ their advanced techniques. In the Lab’s case they were in the midst of undoing harm caused by early preservation attempts, which in some cases was causing pots to break and crumble. It is such a painstaking and laborious process, not my idea of fun.

Lastly we were escorted through the cavernous Collections storage room where row upon seemingly endless row of specially designed shelving units towered over our heads (ten or twelve feet high). The immense room was divided into sections such as lithics (rock work), pottery, pottery shards, soft-wares, furnishings and even a linen area. From Bandelier National Monument was an impressive collection of wood furniture carved by members of the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. From Canyon de Chelly, boxes and boxes of items including coprolites and quids— wads of fiber spit out by long ago by residents that chewed agave leaves. From Faraway Ranch, a relatively new addition to Chiricahua National Monument, came a little bit of everything—the original owners never threw anything away. As a result WACC is now storing beds, napkins, an assortment of old hearing aids, tools, and even kitchen utensils—all of them with historical value.

It is an impressive facility and a worthwhile tour, I left that afternoon with some new knowledge and a list of interesting new places to visit. Speaking of learning something new, as I mentioned in another post I was recently introduced to the concept of Letterboxing (it is similar to geocaching but relies on clues instead of GPS coordinates). I was flabbergasted to have just recently learned of it (and Questing)—especially since we could have been doing both of those during our travels!

Obviously intrigued I set off on a journey to find my first hidden box. I didn’t have to go far—a three box series was hidden right near our RV park along a path that Lance and I have walked daily for the past four months. The directions to the first box were listed online while the clues to the second box were inside the first. The fun of Letterboxing isn’t just about the thrill of the hunt, many of the boxes are hidden in special places with background information that explains the spot’s importance and all of the boxes include artistic hand-carved stamps.

After finding the box and discreetly retrieving it I stamped in to the box’s logbook with my own unique stamp and nickname. Then I stamped the box’s artwork in my logbook and dated my find. Completely hooked I continued on to the second box, but I was stymied at the third box since there were too many people around. They just would not leave! It was a bit frustrating and I found myself thinking of creative ways to disperse them but to no avail. Sigh. My third Letterbox had to wait until later.

Since I had so much fun I told my sister all about it and she was fascinated (as I knew she would be) so we set a Letterboxing date. My sister was practically giddy when she found her first Letterbox and I knew she was also hooked. The hunt was on! In the Tucson area there are close to 150 hidden boxes so we have plenty of sleuthing to do. During our second Letterbox outing we got slightly lost and momentarily thwarted by a difficult clue (all part of the fun) but we eventually managed to find our day’s quota. We felt like super sleuths, move over Sherlock!

Ah, a famous and enduring character from a well-written book series. That brings me to my next topic, the first annual Tucson Festival of Books sponsored by the University of Arizona. Billed as the “largest literary event in Arizona and one of the largest in the country” the free Festival’s author list was over 300 names long including notables such as Elmore Leonard, J.A. Jance, and Stedman Graham. I was so impressed with the idea of the festival that when the call went out for volunteers, I signed up (Lance would’ve too but he was working under a deadline that weekend).

My shift wasn’t until late afternoon on Saturday so I had plenty of time to wander the various venues and sit in on a couple presentations. Charles Bowden, a local journalist and author, and Katie Lee, an outspoken environmentalist author and folk singer, discussed their efforts as writers to urge protection of the southwest. There was so much to see and do that I went back the following day. I gleaned a good deal of information about travel writing from a lecture by Rolf Potts and Tom Miller. The Festival was well-received by Tucson as close to 50,000 people showed up. Next year’s dates for the Festival have already been set.

Along with all those fun happenings we helped our friend Charles celebrate his birthday and went for another bike ride along the Rillito River. This time we swapped Aaron for Jenny—one of these days we’ll get them both together! March has been a month full of activities and it’s not over yet…

Photos: View our photographs from Appreciating March in Tucson.