TAS Monthly Meeting/Lecture

  • 10 Jan 2012
  • 7:00 PM - 8:29 PM
  • Kit Carson Electric - 118 Cruz Alta Rd, Taos

Registration

Our regularly scheduled speaker's meeting starts at 7:00 PM

Date:          Tuesday,  January 10, 2012

Location:    Kit Carson Electric, 118 Cruz Alta Rd,

                     Taos  

Title:           Geophysics and the Search for Sgt. Ordway In Hells Canyon, Idaho

Speaker:     Skip Miller, Forest Archaeologist, Forest Trial Relations Lead, Carson National Forest


Skip Miller's presentation will be on the discovery and five years of geophysical testing (ground penetrating radar, magnetometer, resistometer, etc.) and research of a longhouse in Hells Canyon National Recreation Area that was visited by Sgt. John Ordway and privates Weiser and Fraser of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.  In the spring of 1806, L & C and the gang were camped at a Nez Perce village on the Clearwater River waiting for the snows to melt on the trail over the Bitterroot Mountains.  They had little food left and were wearing out their welcome among the villagers so they were told that they could get fresh salmon, at what is now known as the Snake River.  After more than a two day journey in the incredibly steep and rugged country of the Snake, they arrived at a long house village occupied by Curly Hair and his band on May 29, 1806. Ordway wrote entries in his journal every day of the expedition and from his notes and L & C's writings based on the later conversations with Ordwy we were able to glean some great descriptive information that we could validate through the geophysical mapping and a small "biopsy," as opposed to the autopsy of a usual excavation, of the site. 


Skip Keith Miller is currently forest archæologist/tribal relations lead for the Carson National Forest. He previously worked on the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest's Hells Canyon National Recreation Area in northeastern Oregon. Miller was a former co-director and curator for the Taos Historic Museums which operated the Ernest L. Blumenschein Home and Museum, the Kit Carson Home and Museum, la Hacienda de los Martinez, la Morada Centro (one of the oldest Penitente meeting houses in NM) and the Ferdinand Maxwell House in Taos. He formally worked as a curator at the Tucson Museum of Art and a research associate and archæologist for the Museum of Northern Arizona. Miller is an archæologist, writer, educator, museum professional and an art historian with expertise in Native American art history (specializing in ceramics) and the art and cultural history of the American West. Miller is also a studio potter with works represented in museum, corporate and private collections, nationally and internationally. Miller lives in Taos with his wife Elizabeth Cunningham, a writer, art historian and editor.


TAS Minutes from the November 8th meeting are posted on the web, Please review them for approval at this meeting. The Officers Meeting minutes from September are also posted.  Go to "About Us" - "Previous Meetings" to view these reports.


Dinner Plans ?
Dinner will be at 5 p.m. at The Trading Post Cafe in Ranchos de Taos.

 Please RSVP to Dorothy by Friday, January 6 if you plan to join us for dinner.

Dorothy_Wells@me.com or 751-3265 

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Taos Archaeological Society

PO Box 143

Taos, NM, 87571

Admin@TaosArch.org

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