Excursions
EXCursions
The conference will offer two excursion options to regional archeological sites and one to the City of Los ALamos. Buses will leave from the Santa Fe Convention Center at 1:00pm Wednesday, June 30 and return at 5:30pm.
Bandelier National Monument THIS EXCURSION HAS NO MORE SPACES AVAILABLE
Bandelier's human history extends back for over 10,000 years when nomadic hunter-gatherers followed migrating wildlife across the mesas and canyons. By 1150 CE Ancestral Pueblo people began to build more permanent settlements. Reminders of these past times are still evident in the park as are the strong ties of the modern Pueblo people. By 1550 the Ancestral Pueblo people had moved from their homes here to pueblos along the Rio Grande (Cochiti, San Felipe, San Ildefonso, Santa Clara, Santo Domingo).
In the mid-1700's Spanish settlers with Spanish land grants made their homes in Frijoles Canyon. In 1880 Jose Montoya of Cochiti Pueblo brought Adolph F. A. Bandelier to Frijoles Canyon. Montoya offered to show Bandelier his people's ancestral homelands.
The Bandelier Tour will include a tour of The Tsankawi section of Bandelier National Monument. The Tsankawi section of Bandelier National Monument is located on State Highway 4 twelve miles from the main section of the park. At Tsankawi you take a 1.5 mile walk along a mesa, viewing cavates, petroglyphs and the Ancestral Pueblo village of Tsankawi. Ladders are a required part of this trail. Please reconsider taking this hike, if you can not climb steep ladders. The trail is very exposed to the elements and should not be taken during localized thunderstorms.
Puye Cliffs at Santa Clara Pueblo
Puye Cliffs at Santa Clara Pueblo
For more than three centuries – from the late 1100s to 1580 – Puye Cliffs was home to 1500 Pueblo Indians who lived, farmed and hunted game there. In the late 1500s, Puye Cliffs’ inhabitants moved into the Rio Grande River valley, likely due to drought that caused springs to dry up and crops to fail. Puye Cliffs’ inhabitants are ancestors of the present-day Santa Clara people, who now live at Santa Clara Pueblo, ten miles east of Puye.
Puye Cliffs consists of two levels of cliff dwellings cut into the cliff face, as well as dwellings on the mesa top. The first level is over one mile long and runs the entire length of the base of the mesa. The second level is about 2,100 feet long. Stairways and paths were cut in the face of the rock to connect the two levels and to allow people to climb to the top of the mesa. Dwellings on the mesa top are examples of Pueblo architecture and were part of a single, multi-storied complex built around a large, central plaza. The complex is known as the Community House or Great House. While the actual number of rooms is unknown, the south part of the complex had 173 rooms on the ground floor, with multiple stories in various places, similar to modern-day Taos Pueblo.
The largest of all settlements in the Pajarito Plateau, Puye Cliffs was excavated in the summer of 1907 by Adolf Bandelier, in cooperation with the Southwest Society of the Archeological Institute of America. It was the first of the ancient Pueblos of the Rio Grande Valley to be systematically excavated, and was named a National Historic Landmark in 1966.
LOS ALAMOS TOUR
Los Alamos has a long and varied history. However, its uniqueness – and what it is best known for – comes from its role as the site for the development of the world’s first atomic bombs. Los Alamos Laboratory, known as Project Y, was conceived during the early part of World War II. The United States wanted to build an atomic explosive to counter the threat posed by the German nuclear development program. The term Manhattan Project came about because the program began under the Manhattan Engineering District of the War Department.Today, Los Alamos National Laboratory is one of the world's leading research institutions. Each day, Laboratory personnel work on advanced technologies to meet the needs of the twenty-first century, such as hydrogen fuel cell development, supercomputing, and applied environmental research. Yet, since its creation, the primary responsibility of the Laboratory has been to maintain the effectiveness of the nation's nuclear deterrent.
The Los Alamos Tour will include a tour of:
The Los Alamos Historical Museum that is dedicated to preserving, protecting and interpreting the history of Los Alamos. Housed in the Guest Cottage of the Los Alamos Ranch School -- a favorite place of Gen. Leslie Groves during the Manhattan Project. The museum features:Area Geology - How and why the Jemez Volcano erupted 1.4 million years ago; Anthropology - 700 years of human habitation: grind corn as the Indians have done for centuries and experience the pristine wilderness where elk and turkeys roamed; Ranch School - An elite boys school founded by Ashley Pond in 1917; Manhattan Project - Enter the actual gate of the project's Santa Fe headquarters when Los Alamos was known as the Manhattan Project. Walk through "Life in the Secret City;" Currently in the Changing Exhibit Area - "Harvey Girls, Harvey Houses, and Southwest Indian Detours"; Museum shop that features a wide variety of books and gift items; And a Historical District Walking Tour.
As you enter the Museum the statues of Dr. Robert Oppenheimer and General Leslie Groves, perhaps the two most famous personalities of the Manhattan Project, greet you as you enter the era that led to the development of the world's first atomic bomb. The impending conflict that darkened Europe in the late 1930s at first cast no shadow on the sunny Pajarito Plateau in northern New Mexico. But soon World War II shook the entire world. Los Alamos, once the site of a boys' ranch school, became the focus of secret efforts to develop an entirely new weapon, one that derived its power from the splitting of atomic nuclei.
The museum features a:
Historical
Gallery that shows
a time line above the display showing the world events that formed the
background of the Manhattan Project; Newspaper headlines announcing world
events; Videos that tell the story of life at Los Alamos before and during the
Manhattan Project; Photos, documents, and objects illustrating life in Los
Alamos during the intense years when an international team of scientists raced
to build the bomb.
Defense Gallery features an exhibit about the work, called Stockpile Stewardship. Artifacts include a W80 warhead, air-launched cruise missile, Mark 12A, B61 and B83 bombs, and Fat Man, a bomb casing identical to the one dropped on Nagasaki and similar to the device tested at Trinity. The gallery also includes an exhibit on plutonium and one on the Nevada Test Site. A test rack, which held the nuclear device, firing components, radiation detectors, and other instruments, symbolizes the era of underground nuclear testing, which ceased in 1992. Visitors can learn where plutonium comes from Research Gallery.
Research GalleryResearch Gallery reflects the widely varied basic and applied research work conducted at the Laboratory.
