BLM Embraces Technology to Offer Windows to the Past Utah and Arizona
CASE STUDY
Agents of Discovery Interactive Mobile Phone App (Arizona) In FY 2021, the BLM Tucson Field Office developed and launched three new Agents of Discovery missions with partner assistance from the Friends of the San Pedro River and Empire Ranch Foundation. Agents of Discovery is an educational, GPS-based mobile phone game that engages kids of all ages to explore the natural and cultural environment. By using the app at select locations, users can find quizzes, challenges, and win prizes. With BLM-managed public lands as the backdrop, aspiring Junior Rangers can tackle missions exploring Clovis Culture sites, ghost towns, historic cattle ranches, and other historic and cultural resources, offering an interactive window into the past.
HCRATT to craft additional material for the guided tour. To date, BLM and CyArk have interest from the Hopi Tribe, the Pueblo of Zuni, and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe. The tours will help promote proper etiquette of visitors while they are visiting archaeological sites in Bears Ears National Monument by leveraging voices from Tribal Nations to confer the message and the importance of Bears Ears to descendant communities. This project has the potential to reach a broad audience while helping BLM to build and maintain relationships with Tribes. Arizona Project Archaeology Video Series (Arizona) Working with Arizona State Parks and Trails videographer Carlos Ramirez’s Arizona Project, BLM Arizona produced a video series highlighting two BLM Yuma Field Office cultural heritage sites: Yellow Dog Mine and Joseph Cone Cabin. The videos focused on the methods of scientific inquiry and how and why archaeologists study shelters, artifacts, photos, and oral stories to understand how people lived in the past. The video examines the miner’s shelter, nails, and pottery shards to highlight the importance of classification and context as archaeological tools to understand the environment and resources available to the miners living in the area. The videos also serve to dispel the misconception that archaeologists must excavate a site to collect data. In 2021, Arizona Project Archaeology was awarded the Arizona Governor’s Heritage Preservation Honor Award in recognition of nine short educational videos featuring federal and state cultural heritage sites. The video series will be used in classrooms across Arizona as part of the program’s efforts to provide materials and resources to educators to teach archaeological education in the classroom.
New Agents of Discovery missions available at Las Cienagas National Conservation Area and San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area have received positive feedback from BLM’s partners and app users. (BLM Arizona Tucson Field Office)
The COVID-19 pandemic required agencies to pivot to virtual education and outreach events. The Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) partnerships proved invaluable during this time, as the agency offered various opportunities for education, recreation, and heritage tourism. Bears Ears National Monument 3D Guided Tours (Utah) In an ongoing partnership with the BLM Monticello Field Office and Bears Ears National Monument, the nonprofit CyArk has produced 3D guided tours of two prominent locations in Bears Ears National Monument: The Mule Canyon Village and
House on Fire sites are accessible on the CyArk website. In 2022, CyArk digitally documented an additional three sites on Comb Ridge and has begun to craft a virtual reality guided tour of the Comb Ridge landscape. BLM and CyArk worked with Tribal Nations to provide the story about the three sites, Comb Ridge, and the greater Bears Ears landscape from their perspective. As part of the project, the Hopi Cultural Resource Advisory Task Team (HCRATT) travelled to Comb Ridge and visited the Butler Wash Developed Site, which CyArk documented a few weeks prior. CyArk conducted an initial interview with HCRATT and BLM. CyArk is continuing to work with
The public can access free virtual guided tours through the CyArk website. Pictured is a tour of the House on Fire within Bears Ears NM, White Mesa, UT. (Courtesy CyArk)
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