WS Ranch Archaeological Project Collection: Processing to Sustain Cultural Heritage

FAIN: PF-280964-21

Denver Museum of Nature and Science (Denver, CO 80205-5732)
Stephen E. Nash (Project Director: January 2021 to January 2024)
Michele Koons (Project Director: January 2024 to present)
Dominique V. Alhambra (Co Project Director: July 2021 to present)
Erika Heacock (Co Project Director: October 2023 to present)

An implementation project to sustainably rehouse a collection of 500,000 artifacts from the WS Ranch Archaeological Project, an Upland Mogollon Pueblo site (occupied ca. 800 to 1300 CE) located in New Mexico and excavated from 1977 to 1994.

The WS Ranch Archaeological Project (WSRAP) Collection is an important and irreplaceable assemblage of approximately 500,000 artifacts of Late Pithouse, Classic Mimbres, and Tularosa Phase material cultures. Excavated decades ago near Alma, west central New Mexico, by the University of Texas at Austin, the unprocessed, uncataloged collection has never been fully accessible to researchers and tribal representatives. Recently acquired by DMNS, the WSRAP Collection is being moved from substandard collections storage conditions in Texas to Denver prior to the project period. NEH funds will enable project staff, volunteers, and interns to sustainably preserve and install the WSRAP collection in the Museum’s state-of-the-art collections facility. Dissemination strategies will make the collection accessible to professionals and a variety of museum audiences, including tribes.