New Hohokam Exhibit in Mesa, Bond Funding for Honey Bee Village, Irma Moreno

Southwestern Archaeology Making the News - A Service of the Center for Desert Archaeology

- New Exhibit at Mesa Southwest Museum Explores Hohokam Platform Mounds: Before traveling to Mexico or Egypt to view ancient temples, check out the one in your backyard. The Mesa Grande Temple Mound is a well-preserved Hohokam site in the Southeast Valley. It's open only on special occasions, and from outside the enclosure, may seem just a dusty and creosote bush-covered mound, but an upcoming exhibit at Mesa Southwest Museum promises fresh insight into the spiritual side of Hohokam life.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0822mr-hohokam0823.html

- Bond Funding Proposed to Improve Interpretive Features at Honeybee Village: Honey Bee Village is what remains of a Hohokam settlement located in Oro Valley east of North Rancho Vistoso Boulevard and south of the Moore Road alignment. The Hohokam first settled in the village, which was along the Honey Bee Wash in the Cañada del Oro Valley, around A.D. 450, according to the Center for Desert Archaeology. Those 13 acres are meant to become a public preserve, both town and county officials said. "The 2008 proposal is to make that site accessible to the public," said Roger Anyon, cultural resources program manager for the county's Cultural Resources and Historic Preservation Office. If approved, most of the bond money would go toward creating trails and interpretative signs, he said.
http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/197575

- Irma Moreno is a Living History Treasure for Tucson: When Irma Moreno was in school, she disliked studying history. But a curious thing happened to Moreno one day in 1999. Having retired from 22 years of teaching elementary school on the South Side and wanting to do something interesting and useful, Moreno walked into a building to ask about being a volunteer. It was the Arizona Historical Society by the university.
There she discovered the history she had been taught to dislike. The society staff opened her eyes to the vastness that is Tucson's history.
http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/197925.php

- National Park Service Celebrates 91st Anniversary This Saturday. The National Park Service, America's premier conservation agency -- turns 91 years old this week with millions of citizens enjoying historic treasures from Independence Hall to Mesa Verde and famous natural sanctuaries such as Yellowstone, Yosemite and the Everglades. Today, the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees (CNPSR), whose more than 600 members cumulatively served 17,000 years in the National Park Service, voiced hope that a new era of reinvestment in national parks is dawning.
http://www.cdarc.org/page/hqr - Yahoo News

- National Park Service Agrees to Support Expansion of Trail for San Antonio Missions: The San Antonio Missions National Historical Park's proposal to build a new trail connecting Mission San Jose to hike and bike lanes along Mission Trail has been declared eligible to receive federal matching funds. The local friends group of the park, Los Compadres de San Antonio Missions National Historical Park, has raised $48,700 through individual donors and fund-raising events toward the new trail.
http://www.cdarc.org/page/dbqy - San Antonio Business Journal

- 115 Years of Preservation at Casa Grande: Last June, the local landmark celebrated 115 years as nationally protected grounds. In fact, Casa Grande Ruins was the first prehistoric and cultural site to be established in the United States. The Casa Grande represented the centerpiece of the Hohokam irrigation farming culture, which flourished in the Gila River Valley beginning sometime between 300 B.C. and 300 A.D. By the Classic Period (1100-1450 A.D.), experts believe that anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 Hohokam inhabited the area, living along 300 miles of canals dug from the Gila River.
http://www.cdarc.org/page/6dkz - Tri Valley Central

- Man Fined for Illegal Excavations on San Carlos Reservation: A northeastern Arizona man has been ordered to pay $24,000 in federal fines for illegally digging for artifacts on an Indian reservation. Mark Anthony Brady of Springerville pleaded guilty to violating a federal law that prohibits digging for tribal artifacts on Indian lands. Brady was digging for artifacts at a prehistoric village site on the San Carlos Indian Reservation.
The Phoenix Business Journal.

- Coin Cache found in San Antonio: A backhoe uncovered about 200 U.S. quarters, half dollars and silver dollars dating between 1852 and 1880. The crew also found a gold coin from that era. The value of the coins largely depends on their condition, and many are green with corrosion. Suneson said he doesn't expect to make a fortune selling the hoard. He's more interested in the mystery of how the coins wound up underground, forgotten.
http://www.cdarc.org/page/89as - My San Antonio.Com