The Vanishing Treasures Program: Celebrating 20 Years of National Park Service Historic Preservation

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "The Vanishing Treasures Program: Celebrating 20 Years of National Park Service Historic Preservation," at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In 1998 the National Park Service established the Vanishing Treasures Program (VT). Originally started as a grassroots effort to protect and preserve architectural ruins in the American Southwest, Vanishing Treasures has grown to include all forms of traditionally-built architecture on National Park Service lands throughout the American West, Alaska and the Pacific Islands. While the program has undergone significant growth over the last 20 years, the core mission of perpetuating traditional building skills, promoting connections between culturally associated communities and preserving culturally significant architecture has not. This session will celebrate the Vanishing Treasures Program by discussing the past, present and future development of VT and its impact on cultural resource management in the National Park Service and throughout the country.

Other Keywords
Cultural Resources and Heritage Management • Cultural Heritage and Preservation • Architecture • Historic • Ancestral Pueblo • Experimental Archaeology • Pueblo • Historic Preservation • Preservation • Historic Log Structure

Geographic Keywords
United States of America (Country) • North America (Continent) • New Mexico (State / Territory) • Oklahoma (State / Territory) • Arizona (State / Territory) • Texas (State / Territory) • Sonora (State / Territory) • Chihuahua (State / Territory) • Baja California (State / Territory) • USA (Country)

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-14 of 14)

  • Documents (14)
Documents
  • Architectural Documentation at the Montezuma Castle and Casa Grande Ruins National Monuments (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Matthew Guebard. Angelyn Bass. Doug Porter. Larry Nordby.

    This is an abstract from the "The Vanishing Treasures Program: Celebrating 20 Years of National Park Service Historic Preservation" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This presentation will discuss a partnership between the National Park Service and the University of New Mexico for in-depth documentation of ancient architecture at the Montezuma Castle cliff dwelling and Casa Grande great house. While the project was initially developed to produce a...

  • The Bandelier Preservation Program: Accomplishing the Vanishing Treasures Mission by Encouraging Traditional Building Skills and Descendant Community Involvement in the Preservation Process (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jonathan Stark. Myron Gonzales.

    This is an abstract from the "The Vanishing Treasures Program: Celebrating 20 Years of National Park Service Historic Preservation" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Preservation efforts at Bandelier National Monument have followed the Vanishing Treasures core mission for nearly 20 years. Today, the Bandelier Preservation Program maintains this tradition by way of numerous and varied preservation projects. Two projects in particular that adhere to...

  • Complexities and Opportunities in a Living Landscape: Developing a Cooperative Management Strategy for Historic Navajo Architecture in Canyon de Chelly (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Joshua Ramsey. Keith Lyons.

    This is an abstract from the "The Vanishing Treasures Program: Celebrating 20 Years of National Park Service Historic Preservation" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Canyon de Chelly National Monument’s enabling legislation language is unique among units of the National Park system. Rights, title and interest to all lands and minerals were retained by the Navajo tribe upon the Monument’s establishment in 1931. Legal authorities are therefore executed...

  • Don't Leave Your Mark: Graffiti Mitigation Strategies at Arches National Park (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Rachel Adler. Laura Martin.

    This is an abstract from the "The Vanishing Treasures Program: Celebrating 20 Years of National Park Service Historic Preservation" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Over the past five years, there have been several high profile incidents of vandalism on public lands, including in multiple National Parks across the West. This presentation deals with one such incident that took place at Arches National Park in the spring of 2016. Visitors carved names...

  • Integrated Approach to Ruins Stabilization at Tuzigoot National Monument (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Wendel Navenma. Lucas Hoedl. Jeremy Navenma.

    This is an abstract from the "The Vanishing Treasures Program: Celebrating 20 Years of National Park Service Historic Preservation" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 1998, Tuzigoot National Monument, through the Vanishing Treasures Program, set forth on a program of complex ruins stabilization at Tuzigoot pueblo (AD 1125 – 1400) that endures to this day. While some of the original stabilization methodology has remained constant from its earliest...

  • Mindful Preservation: Lessons Learned from the 2016-2018 Preservation Workshops at San Antonio Missions NHP (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Susan Snow.

    This is an abstract from the "The Vanishing Treasures Program: Celebrating 20 Years of National Park Service Historic Preservation" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. From 2016-2018 San Antonio Missions National Historical Park along with support from the Center for Cultural Sustainability at University of Texas, San Antonio, Mission Heritage Partners and the Vanishing Treasures Program, has sponsored a preservation workshop on stone construction,...

  • Moisture Monitoring Studies of Adobe Walls at Pecos NHP, New Mexico (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jeremy Moss. Colleen Fillipone.

    This is an abstract from the "The Vanishing Treasures Program: Celebrating 20 Years of National Park Service Historic Preservation" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 2014 cultural resource staff at Pecos NHP began a moisture monitoring program to understand the movement of moisture within adobe walls and to study the affects of preservation treatments. The program uses moisture volume and soil moisture potential sensors in two adobe test walls and...

  • The Origins of the National Park Service's Vanishing Treasures Program (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Larry Nordby.

    This is an abstract from the "The Vanishing Treasures Program: Celebrating 20 Years of National Park Service Historic Preservation" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the mid-1990s, the National Park Service sought to upgrade its architectural preservation programs at about 40 arid-lands parks, which were facing the loss of significant numbers of retiring preservation craftsmen who had been working to preserve resources since the 1960s and 1970s....

  • Pluvia Ex Machina: Testing rainfall variability on adobe structures (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Sharlot Hart.

    This is an abstract from the "The Vanishing Treasures Program: Celebrating 20 Years of National Park Service Historic Preservation" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In recent years, National Park Service and Vanishing Treasures cultural resource managers have noted archeological site damage caused by seasonal rain events. Standing earthen architecture, like adobe, appears to be most vulnerable to weather-related damage, particularly extreme rainfall...

  • Preserving Our Vanishing Treasures: 20 Years of Collaboration, Community Building, Traditional Craft and Conservation Science (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Lauren Meyer.

    This is an abstract from the "The Vanishing Treasures Program: Celebrating 20 Years of National Park Service Historic Preservation" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Vanishing Treasures Program of the National Park Service is a multi-regional effort that supports the preservation of cultural heritage in the Western United States; facilitates the perpetuation of traditional skills through staff-, youth- and partner-focused training; and promotes...

  • Repeat Laser Scanning for Deformation Analysis in Prehistoric Earthen Architecture Rockshelter Sites: A Case Study at Tonto National Monument (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jacob DeGayner. Iraida Rodriguez.

    This is an abstract from the "The Vanishing Treasures Program: Celebrating 20 Years of National Park Service Historic Preservation" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Terrestrial laser scanning has emerged as a versatile tool and standard practice for the documentation, analysis, and storage of spatial information related to cultural resource management. While laser scanning surveys are completed with multiple outcomes in mind, cultural resource...

  • RTI Photography inside a Hohokam Great House (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Katherine Shaum. Neil Dixon. Katharine Williams.

    This is an abstract from the "The Vanishing Treasures Program: Celebrating 20 Years of National Park Service Historic Preservation" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Great House at Casa Grande Ruins National Monument is a monumental 11 room, three/four story structure made of puddled mud "caliche" that has been called "the pinnacle of Hohokam architectural achievement" and is significant for its high degree of preservation. The building is home...

  • The Vanishing Treasures Training Program- Closing the Skills Gap (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Katherine Wonson.

    This is an abstract from the "The Vanishing Treasures Program: Celebrating 20 Years of National Park Service Historic Preservation" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Vanishing Treasures (VT) began its training program in 2014 with five trainings and 90 trainees. Today, we have trained over one thousand people and hosted 90 trainings. Our growth has been guided by A Technical Preservation Needs Assessment and Training Strategy completed in...

  • When Contemporary Becomes Historic: Preservation Maintenance to Mission 66 Architecture at El Morro National Monument (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Steve Baumann.

    This is an abstract from the "The Vanishing Treasures Program: Celebrating 20 Years of National Park Service Historic Preservation" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. El Morro National Monument’s Mission 66 maintenance\utility complex is a distinctive Cecil Doty design uncharacteristic of Mission 66 program utilitarian buildings. Extending from the maintenance building is a service yard enclosed by a fence with battered stone masonry piers and...