Nevadans for Cultural Preservation

August 2024

Friends of Gold Butte invited NVFCP to speak about how folks can preserve archaeology in Nevada. 

Rayette Martin-NVFCP Executive Director and Public Archaeologist provided a Zoom presentation that covered the types of cultural sites found in Nevada, the laws that protect them, and how everyone can participate in preservation efforts.

Means to participate included:

• Signing and following the ethics in the Citizen Steward Pledge
• Training to be an OHV Preservation Ambassador
• Volunteering to clean sites including graffiti remediation 
• Supporting Archaeology as a field
• Learning and Sharing what was learned with others

A great Q/A session followed the presentation with tips on how to report if you find someone actively vandalizing, what to do about cleaning up modern trash left in historic trash piles, and more.

August 2024

NVFCP had a booth at Smokey the Bear's 80th birthday celebration at the visitor's gateway at Mount Charleston. During set up and the first hour and a half or so we had great sunny weather with a light breeze. By 11am the sky was black, winds were whipping, and there was thunder and lightening. We packed up earlier than we had hoped. The fire engine left early as well but it went to put out two lightening caused fires on the mountain. 

We had a great time singing Happy Birthday, eating cupcakes, and visiting with folks on the Mountain. At our booth, kids learned about manos and metates and pine nuts, and were sent home with archaeology related activity books. Adults learned about online reporting, the importance of leaving artifacts in context, and the educational opportunities we provide. 

July 2024

Presentation by Kelly Harvey - Museum Specialist for the Bureau of Reclamation

How do agencies keep cultural resources preserved in perpetuity? This presentation takes a deeper dive into what can deteriorate a museum collection and how these preservation practices can assist anyone in protecting their valued artifacts. Kelly goes over agents of deterioration with an in-depth discussion of our lenses in which we view things as well as the usual suspects like pollutants, theft, temperature, humidity. 

Watch a recording of this video on our YouTube Channel here.

June 2024

Our Monthly Speaker Series proudly hosted Dr. Kathrina Aben - Tribal Liaison, BLM Southern Nevada District

Gypsum Cave is an archaeological site in Southern Nevada and historic property nominated on the National Register of Historic Properties. Aside from its archaeological and paleontological significance, the cave is important to past and present tribal communities. What is tribal consultation and why is is this needed for archaeological sites? Gypsum Cave is used as an example to introduce basic concepts of tribal consultation to assist federal staff and volunteers working on archaeological sites and with Native-American tribes.

Watch a recording of the talk on our YouTube Channel here. 

May 2024

Our Monthly Speaker Series proudly hosted Virginia Lucas - Curator and Archaeologist at the Lost City Museum.

Completed in 1935, the Boulder Dam Park Museum was built to house the artifacts from excavations at Lake Mead. The museum was originally located at St. Thomas before moving to its current location in 1935. The museum existed as the Boulder Dam Park Museum for the next 15 years. In the early 1950s, the museum transferred to state control, and the name changed to what it is today – the Lost City Museum. While several Civilian Conservation Corps crews worked on the building of the Hoover (Boulder) Dam, Ohio Company 573 and Company 538 were sent to excavate where the lake would ultimately form. The Lost City Museum will soon celebrate its 90^th Anniversary, and while the building has had some additions through the years, it remains a place for people to learn about the indigenous peoples that lived and thrived in the Moapa Valley a thousand years ago. This presentation will showcase photos from the 1925 and 1926 Pageant as well as video clips from the 1920s and 1930s excavations.  

Watch a recording of the talk on our YouTube Channel here.

April 2024

Dr. Samantha Rubinson, Program Coordinator for the Nevada Site Stewardship Program and Non-Voting Board Member for NVFCP, provided a talk for the Sloan Canyon Speaker Series organized by the Bureau of Land Management at the West Henderson Library. She discussed the rich cultural resources of the area and how citizens can help care for them. 

Learn more about upcoming events on the library's website here.

March 2024

Our Monthly Speaker Series proudly hosted Marty McMahon, District Archaeologist for the U.S. Forest Service - Humboldt-Toiyabe NF, Spring Mountains NRA.

There are more than 900 identified archaeological sites on the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area lands. And that just the ones we know of. Not all of them are Native American or prehistoric but over 71% are or are part of a multicomponent site.  

Petroglyphs and Pictographs are especially sensitive to the Tribes and have a high potential for looting and vandalism. We have the Archaeological Resources Protection Act (1979) to help federal land managers prosecute looters or vandals (If they’re caught). The photo above is a Petroglyph boulder that was taken from Forest Service managed lands and by chance the person was caught. Fortunately, it was returned to its original resource area.

To watch a video of this Zoom Webinar click the link.

February/March 2024

Nevadans for Cultural Preservation was invited to talk to students at their field school at Valley of Fire State Park. We discussed the importance of considering modern human visitation as part of the management of cultural resources. 

The field school is gathering important archaeological data for State Parks future management. State Parks partnered with the University of Nevada Las Vegas, College of Southern Nevada, and Nevada Site Stewardship Program. NVFCP provides public archaeology education and some equipment.  

February 2024

Presenter: Greg Haynes, Associate Research Professor, Desert Research Institute

During the Cold War, the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) was used as the nation’s nuclear testing ground; from 1951 to 1992 100 atmospheric and 828 underground tests were conducted there. Over the years, historic preservation efforts by Desert Research Institute (DRI) on behalf of the National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Field Office (NNSA/NFO) have documented a wide variety of cultural resources on the NNSS from Native American archaeological sites to late twentieth century Cold War-era architectural resources. This talk will discuss the kinds of cultural resources present on the NNSS but will focus on two specially designed Cold War properties: the Huron King Test Chamber and what are colloquially known as Glass Houses.

Photo: The Huron King Test Chamber in 2022. This mobile chamber tested the effects of an electromagnetic pulse on a defense communications satellite housed within its interior.

This talk is part of our Monthly Speaker Series. A recording of the Zoom Webinar can be found on our YouTube Channel here. 

January 2024

Presentation by Kara Jones, Graduate Student at the University of Nevada Las Vegas 

The Mojave Desert is a host of many now desiccated Holocene Lakes. A 2018 geological study conducted by Spaulding and Sims revealed that Ivanpah Lake is not a Holocene Lake as previously thought, but rather a paleolake. This lake, which consistently dried and refilled until approximately 1,000 years ago, created a lush wetland landscape with abundant resources. Subsistence adaptations at Ivanpah Lake include wetland geophyte processing in thermal features, hunting game, and harvesting freshwater crustaceans. Fishing features at lakes in the Mojave Desert are rare but do occur. These fishing features include fishing platforms and catchments, connecting this area to the fishing traditions seen throughout the region. This discovery increases the likelihood of similar finds in other understudied Holocene lakes in the area, specifically those known to host other phyllopod populations. These results have meaningful implications considering the overlap of the study area with the intersection of two important indigenous trails, the Salt Song trail and Southern Fox Song trail. The conclusions drawn from this research create an argument for increased protection and preservation of the entire Ivanpah Lake region and the value of nondestructive research methods by drawing on existing data.

A video of this talk is available on our YouTube Chanel here.