Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
CROW CANYON ARCHAEOLOGICAL CENTER
excavate stone tools & other ancient artifacts
CORTEZ, COLORADO
Sometimes we find a potshard that still bears the fingerprint of the indi-
vidual who made it hundreds of years ago. It gives me a feeling of connec-
tion and communication with that ancient potter.
—Sharon White, Crow Canyon alumna
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Get out your trowel and whisk broom. On the campus of the Crow Canyon Archaeolo-
gical Center, a 170-acre paradise outside Cortez, Colorado, students live in Navajo hogans,
spend all their time outdoors, and consider themselves dressed up if they happen to be wearing
a pair of clean jeans. That's because the students at this unique facility set in a canyon between
the 13,000-foot peaks of the La Plata Mountains are learning about archaeology not by reading
about it, but by getting down into the dirt and actually digging. This unique school dedicated
to exploring the ancestral Puebloan culture of the Mesa Verde region has always had the same
mission: Get people interested in an ancient culture by letting them see it for themselves, let-
ting them experience the thrill you can only get from, for example, uncovering a 1,400-year-
old pot.
When it was started in 1983, Crow Canyon amounted to a couple of pie-in-the-sky archae-
ologists, living in state-surplus trailers and tepees, trying to convince whoever would listen
that preserving ancient cultures is important. They were obviously pretty convincing, because
their idea has morphed in a nationally recognized research center with classrooms, a lab, and
student housing.
“Crow Canyon was founded to make archaeology more public—to enable nonarchaeolo-
gists to learn about and participate in archaeological research,” research associate Bill Lipe
explains. “The whole field has benefited. Crow Canyon has educated thousands of students
and adults about what can be learned from archaeology, the difference between 'pothunting'
and real archaeology, and the importance of protecting sites.”
