Calcite Mine Hike

One of the things we're starting to do as a museum is have hikes on Mondays. Anyone who wants to come is welcome. I can't go on all of them because I am not an 'extreme' hiker and Neal, Jessica and a few of the others here really enjoy extreme Death-by-hiking type of hikes. They also tend to enjoy hiking to higher altitudes than I can manage.  But Sunday Jessica, Jacob and I joined the Natural History Museum Hike, from San Diego, which met in Borrego Springs and drove out to the Calcite Mine in Anzo Borrego Desert State Park. It was advertised as an 'intermediate' hike and good for kids and the elderly so I figured I had a shot at being able to do it.

Stratified rock formations at top of Calcite Mine

The Calcite Mine was used during World War II to quarry calcite and calcium sulfite for the war effort (i.e. making bombs). Today it's an amazing hike if you want to see rock formations and canyons formed over millions of years by wind erosion and the Colorado River, which occasionally would overflow its banks and flood the area, shaping canyons in the same way it shaped the Grand Canyon.

It was a 4 mile roundtrip hike, and we're not sure the altitude past 1,000 feet, but there were places where it was much higher. I only had trouble with the altitude when we got to the Calcite Mine itself, which I'm guessing was over 1,500 and maybe closer to 2,000 feet above sea level.  There were some really amazing formations, like Slot Canyon, which is a small canyon of smooth rocks barely big enough in some places for a person to fit through, and smooth enough in places that it is almost impossible to climb up.  I was proud of myself for only needing help climbing up in one spot.

Slot Canyon

There were some great places where you could see the stratification of the rocks, and you could see veins of quartz and calcite. None photographed well, so you'll have to take my word on that.  We stopped for lunch at the highest part of the Calcite Mine, which is the only spot I had real trouble.  Very little wildlife showed itself, although I have no doubt coyotes, bobcats, ring-tailed cats, jackrabbits, and others are around when people are gone. We saw evidence of rabbits and deer hoof prints.  Which was exciting because that morning Jessica and I were up at the museum looking at where our cacti were being eaten and found prints that were bigger than deer. So we maintain we have big horned sheep eating the cacti.  Which would be cool if we could ever see them in person.  On the hike up we saw a baby horned lizard, which is apparently becoming a rare siting.

Baby horned lizard, trying to blend in, with a comparison penny

 And I figured out how to use my camera for movie images.  Which could be cool in the future as I figure our what I'm doing.

Two Months and Still Going Strong

At this point I’ve been working in CA for two months.  Things are going pretty well and I’m glad I took the position.  I’ve adapted decently to living in the desert in the middle of nowhere, my two roommates and I get along and haven’t yet tried to kill each other in our sleep, and I think I’m progressing decently with the work.  I’ve started the survey of the off site storage facility and brought up about 20 boxes of materials that have been frozen and thawed a few times and am now starting to sort through them in greater detail to actually find out if what I thought before would be important still is.  So far most still seems important.   There are site survey reports of archaeological digs, maps, some analyses, and I’ve found about 40 pictures from a collection Jessica was afraid was completely missing (we’re supposed to have about 5,000).  Pretty soon I’ll be entering the sorted work into our software program, PastPerfect, which will not only be good for me as a new system to learn and put on my resume but will mean that I can (theoretically) connect artifacts and their paperwork.  This is exciting because it’s what I came out here to do.  Most of the artifacts we have now are separated from their paperwork so we don’t know any of their stories. Where were they found, when were they found, what else was there, what could it mean?  So getting things tied together again will be the highlight of my work here.  It’s different from what I’ve learned in school and other internships, but I’m enjoying looking at archives in a slightly different way.  My other fun project is working with our lantern slide collection.  Every Saturday I take a break from paper records and work on cleaning our collection of nearly 800 lantern slides, re-housing them into archival envelopes, and cataloging them to be found easily.  At some point we will start getting them digitized and put into Pastperfect as well.  Lots of possibilities once that happens!  I’ll probably do a blog just on the lantern slides later on.

Prickly pear cactus

On my personal list, I’ve done a few hikes and learned that while I enjoy hiking, I’m still very much a beginner and need to stick to the bunny slopes (so to speak).  We discovered the hard way that I get altitude sickness so it looks like I’ll be left out of some of the more interesting hikes because they will be at high elevations and I apparently can’t handle that.  I’ve seen a red tailed hawk, jackrabbits, and (the highest on my bucket list) a coyote.  The coyote reminded me quite forcefully to always bring my camera when I go outside.  I went out of the museum one morning to walk down to the road and open the gate and there he was, standing in the parking lot.  We looked at each other and then he trotted off.  I stayed put, watched him go out of site and knew that was going to be a good day.  And kicking myself for not having my camera to take a picture of a coyote maybe 20 feet away from me.  What are the chances of my getting close enough for another shot like that? Or even seeing one again?

Well the answer to that is: better than before.  I’m going home for a month in December but then get to come back out and keep working here for awhile.  We haven’t set an end date for my project, but I’ll get farther into it at least.  And I’ll work on finding a job that will pay more than room and board.  Sadly, some things in life are still all about money, no matter how much we wish it was otherwise.  Because really, it can’t get much better than this.  Building an archive from the ground up, helping get a museum going from the ground up.  Living in a place with so little light pollution that at night you can sit in the hot tub and see the Milky Way and all kinds of stars.  Hikes and coyotes.  How can my next job possibly top this?  

Coiled Clay with Kids

One of the major programs the Museum does is the Ceramic Arts Youth Program, known to all as the Coiled Clay class.  Each class gets two sessions, in order to build their own pots.  Neil and Jessica (usually) take one of our ollas (pots) to classrooms and talk to the kids about archaeology, the desert, making pots and why it was important to the people who lived here.  Wednesday a group of 16 kids and parents from home schooling groups in the area came out for Class 1.  Jessica and Jacob were out so it was up to me to help Neil. Having never done the program before, I don't think I was much help, but I tried.

Making a coiled clay pot- not as easy as it sounds!

Neil gave his talk about the museum and why it was important, then showed the kids (5-8 graders) some of our collection of arrowheads and points and explained why it was important that they not pick up anything they find in the desert.  There used to be arrowheads, ollas, and all kinds of artifacts just lying around on the ground and as late as the 1980s people talked about how many they would see on hikes. Enough people picked things up as souvenirs or used the ollas as target practice that you don't see that anymore. Which is sad, since it takes away so much of the culture we're trying to preserve. When you just pick something up you've completely erased it's archaeological value, and most of the story of that object is lost since it wasn't properly documented. The kids enjoyed looking at the different kinds of points, although some of our dating got thrown off when one of the moms told Neil that many of the kids were being taught Creationism and so believed the world was only 6,000 years old. Fortunately Neil had read an article about the 'New Earth' theory that talked about how volcanic eruptions like Mount Saint Helens could mimic what 'Old Earth' proponents claimed took millions of years to compress earth, and therefore turn an artifact dated 10,000 years old into a 3,000 year old artifact.  There was science involved in the article that I certainly didn't get, and I don't think any non-science person would try to (which is a whole different debate),  but it did require a little change on what Neil was saying.  He was more than up to the task. I learn a lot watching him!  Then the real fun began.  The kids got chunks of clay and got to try their hand at making the base of their own pots.  Next week they get to add on to the bases they made this week.

One of the few original ollas paddles left, from our collection

The basic idea we use is: take a foam ball for a base, cover it in a damp cloth. Flatten out some clay to act as your base on the bottom of the pot and then you make coils of clay and add them to the base. Rolling snakes out of clay vied with smashing the clay onto the table as the favorite part for these kids. Once you have a few 'snakes' on the ball you take a wooden paddle and smash the clay flat (another favorite and enthusiastically tried part for kids), so the coils disappear.  The real problem we have right now is that we don't have a kiln to fire the pots.  We keep trying for it in grants, but so far no luck.  We use a bar-b-q pit instead. The old clay we used worked fine. The new kind tends to explode in the fire. So we experiment and keep hoping to get a kiln eventually!

 The general rule of thumb is that it takes about 4 tries before you have a base worth keeping and using for your pot. One of our kids made a really good one his first try, which I think discouraged some of the others. But they got into it. What kid doesn't like playing with clay as a school project?

Jacob swears he meant for his pot to come out in this shape

Group Fun

Dr. Neil Hitch talking about the Ceramic Art Youth Program

This week the Museum has several groups coming for tours and programs. Today a group from El Centro's United Methodists Ladies Club came out.  30 people listened to Dr. Neil Hitch give a talk on the history of the Museum, where it is today, and where it plans to go in the future.  Jessica Brody, our Head Curator, gave a brief talk explaining the curation process of the museum, what our volunteers do when they come out, and a behind the scenes look at artifacts before and after they have been curated.  She encouraged anyone who was interested to come out to the museum and volunteer to get their own, hands on experience with artifacts.

Dr. Hitch also described several of the youth oriented programs the Museum is doing. One in its' third year is the Ceramic Art Youth Program  where Museum staff go into classrooms and talk with kids about clay pots as art and let them try their hand at making their own coiled clay pots. The ladies were kind enough to help try out a new project and got to play with Play-Do, turning coils of clay into the petroglyph designs painted on our Museum walls.  Much fun was had by all!  

Petroglyphs painted on Museum wall

Coiled clay petroglyph