HISTORY OF CROW CANYON
1 By 1985, the Crow Canyon campus was changing into a fully functioning learning center with the construction of several buildings, including the “Lodge” with kitchen, dining hall, and dormitory, as well as 10 “hogan” cabins for student housing. These improvements provided the facilities to teach and house hundreds of citizen scientists of all ages. 2 In 1985, we built the first replica structure on campus: the Basket - maker III period (A.D. 500–750) Pithouse Learning Center, which has been used by thousands of student groups since. Immersive environments like it are powerful teaching tools because of their ability to make multisensory impressions. 3 “The fact that the earliest programs were designed and conducted by educators who were committed to experience-based, immersive programs that truly engage learners has had a lasting impact on the Center’s mission and has helped shape it for the last 40 years.” —Elaine Franklin, former Crow Canyon Director of Education 4 To ensure Crow Canyon’s future as a world-class educational and research institution, we constructed the Gates Building in 1987, a 15,360 sq. ft. research and office building featuring artifact processing, curation space, teaching and research labs, darkroom, archives, simulated archaeological site, research library, seminar rooms, and office space.
5 In 1988, we welcomed the first interns. Since then, more than 375 individuals have gone through what has become a renowned internship program. Former interns regularly refer to their experience as a turning point in their academic development, and many have become university professors, archaeologists, museum directors, and professionals in other fields of science and resource management. 6 More than two decades ago, we launched what would become one of the largest publicly available archae - ological datasets in North America. Populated with field and lab data from hundreds of different archaeological sites in southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah, the interactive data - base is available to both professionals and the public. 7 In 2014, we established the Research Institute at Crow Canyon as an interdisciplinary network of scholars—archaeologists, economists, geographers, sociologists, educators, and Indigenous culture specialists, among others—whose collaborative approach to research is especially suited to addressing big questions with large and complex datasets.
While we celebrate 1983 as the founding of Crow Canyon, our organization’s roots go back much further to educational and research work that began in the 1960s. That is when classroom teacher Dr. Edward F. Berger began creating supplemental programs for his Denver-area students. Experiential curricula that engaged students in authentic community-based projects were central to the programs he designed. By 1968 his project evolved into a summer program in southwestern Colorado. Archaeology and the study of past cultures became the core of these programs. In 1972 he founded a nonprofit organization to formalize this work, and in 1974 he purchased 70 acres of land in Crow Canyon, near Cortez, Colorado, to give the program a home. Locals began calling it the Crow Canyon School. At the same time, Stuart Struever*, who was also highly committed to involving the public in archaeo - logical research, started and was growing his own nonprofit organization in Illinois. Eventually the two organizations merged and then the merger dissolved, giving way to the incorporation of Crow Canyon Archaeological Center as an independent non - profit organization in 1983. Ray Duncan* was recruited to chair a new board for the organization and Stuart served as president. The two served together from 1986 to 1993, when they both retired. Stuart remained on the board after retirement. Many milestones mark our organization’s progress toward becoming an award- winning research and learning institution.
* Deceased
5 2023 ANNUAL REPORT
CROW CANYON ARCHAEOLOGICAL CENTER 6
Made with FlippingBook. PDF to flipbook with ease