Desert Digs: New Deal Archaeology in Southern Arizona, 1934-1941

Summary

The Sonoran Desert of Southern Arizona is well known for its wealth of archaeological sites left behind by PaleoIndian, Archaic, and Formative period cultures. During the Great Depression, archaeological surveys and excavation projects provided employment opportunities for hundreds of young men and women seeking jobs. Bryon Cummings and Emil Haury at the University of Arizona in Tucson and Odd Halseth at Pueblo Grande Museum in Phoenix took advantage of a variety of New Deal work programs to undertake these archaeological investigations at a scale previously unheard of. This presentation summarizes these important projects and discusses how their results significantly advanced our knowledge of the prehistoric cultures of Southern Arizona through published and unpublished reports, master’s theses, and museum exhibits. This New Deal archaeology was undertaken between 1934 and 1941 through the Public Works Administration (PWA), Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), and Works Project Administration (WPA) at Ventana Cave, Pueblo Grande, Besh-Ba-Gowah, University Indian Ruin, Valshni Village, Jackrabbit Ruin, and other sites.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• A New Deal for Western Archaeology

Keywords

Spatial Coverage