# Presentation: 237416

- Elden Pueblo
- Case Study
- Public Archeology

**Current Program**
**“****It’s not what you find, it’s what you find out”**

- Alternate model to “traditional” / NPS interpretation
- Hands-On Archeology – visitors discover site on own terms
- Focus on personal services – developed program as one on one 	interpretation of site
- Undeveloped
- Lack of facilities
- No paved trail
- Minimal signage
- Public Programs
- April – October season
- 2 public days/month –20-30 people avg, reservations in time blocks
- 2 school programs/week – 5th thru 7th graders
- Minimal fee for school programs, public days free
- Non-personal services
- Trail Guide
- Signs focus on etiquette  and rules and regs
- Management relies on partnerships and volunteers

**Goals of Education Program**

- Define Archeology
- 	Techniques
- 	Research Driven
- 	Interpretation of Past
- 	Experimental Archeology
- 		(garden plots, cinder mulch)
- Connect modern tribes to past cultures with explanations of how connections are understood
- Build stewardship ethic and connections with Flagstaff community
- In-class curriculum / preparation
- Archeology as recreation – interactive and experiential

**Management Issues**

-     Highway and nearby neighborhoods
-     Access – Road signs (lack of), safety issues
-     (but inability to find may aid preservation)
-     Not staffed – Potential for vandalism
-     ADA accessible?
-  Environmental Impacts
-     Erosion
-     Vegetated – unnatural fuel load,
- 	non-native plants
-     Bark beetle kill
-  Inadequate USFS monetary support
-     Rely on cooperative groups/agencies
-     No long-term security for program
-     LE presence?

**Project Team Management**

- Project Team:
- 	Project Director – Peter Pilles
- 	Program Mgr – Grad Student
- 	Crew Chief and Volunteers
- Driven by Peter Pilles – Passion!
- 	Only professional archeologist managing the site
- Anti-bureaucratic
- 	“Just do it” attitude -
- 	Works within the system
- Solicits input from Hopi - informal

**Role of Team & Success on Interpretation Planning**

- Does not use team approach now
- 	Used in earlier stages of planning?
- Very successful at interpretation
- 	Passion
- 	Experience
- 	Focused
- 	Personality
- 	Support from management
- Ad Hoc Advisory Board Disbanded

**Critique of Current Programs & Recommendations**

- Signs?  Do we need more?  Should we change the current signs?
- 	All current signs are rules/regulations
- 	    Replace with more interpretive message regarding site etiquette
- 	    (ie. why not walk on walls)
- 	Standardize signs
- Consider introduction/orientation sign in parking lot
- 	65 rooms, Sinagua, site data, Hopi ancestral site
- 	importance of public archeology at the site
- 	public event dates
- Maintain undeveloped feel of site – opportunity for self-discovery
- Public programs effective – connection with community
- Publish results – professional and public oriented
- Consider thinning vegetation

**Brochure Suggestions**
** “****Stories of Elden Pueblo”**

- Sinagua Inhabitants
- Hopi Ties/ Oral Traditions
- Fewkes and Early Archeology – start of public archeology
- Modern Archeology Techniques – Experiential Education, Accessible Archeology
- Flagstaff’s Heritage – Place of Science
- Preservation for the future

**Recommendations for Future Interpretation**

-  Train replacement for Peter
- 	Look to coordinating groups as interest/availability of USFS 	archeologist not guaranteed
-  Consider re-establishing Advisory Group for continuity
- 	Clear mandate to group
-  How does the program continue hands-on experience as areas appropriate for excavation are eliminated
- 	“Replicated” excavations
- 	Switch to more artifact processing
- 	Non-invasive techniques of site investigation (resistivity survey,
- 		ground-penetrating radar)
- 	Excavation of agricultural areas
- 	Stabilization projects
- 	Consider excavation of historic trading post
- 	Interpret site without hands-on experience with an explanation of
- 	 	why excavations stopped
-  Consider partnering with NPS and other agencies for cyclic maintenance of the ruin