San Lorenzo Students Visit the Mimbres Culture Heritage Site

Photos Courtesy of Bill Hudson

September 7, teacher Pat Ross and her 3rd and 4th graders spent a day of education and fun at MCHS. Volunteers from MCHS and the Grant County Archaeological Society joined students from Aldo Leopold Charter School to teach the San Lorenzo students about the ancient Mimbren͂o Indians, Apache Indians, and homesteaders that once lived in the Mimbres Valley.

The students split up into two groups and rotated to museum and outdoor classrooms. They listened to presentations about the Mattocks Ruin Archaeological Site, Mimbres pottery, and the people that built and lived in the historic houses. The Students participated in hands-on activities such as making a pot out of clay, grinding corn using a metate and mano, drilling a hole using a pump drill, using a stone tool to make yucca fiber, and how to “call in the rain” with a lightning stick or bullroarer. Students learned about pithouse and pueblo dwellings, and shade structures known as ramadas.

At the Mattocks Ruin, they first flagged then sketched artifacts, carefully leaving potsherds and stone tool fragments where they discovered them. The kids hiked downhill to the river to eat lunch and, while enjoying the sights and sounds of the water and riparian ecosystem, learned about the endangered fish and frog species that make their home in the Rio Mimbres.

The field trip was partially funded by a grant awarded to MCHS by the Grant County Community Foundation.