GOAT CAMP EXCAVATIONS SPRING 2025 Hey Goat Campers! We had a great, if delayed, start to the Spring season last session, including getting our first real look at the floor in Room 8! So, it’s time to follow up on that and get back at it this Saturday, April 5. Same time (0900-1500), same place. It promises to be a good weather day – partly cloudy with a high in the mid 50s. A bit chilly in the morning, perhaps, but perfect by the time we’re ready to leave…. Unfortunately, however, once again there is a prediction of rain and/or snow on Friday. This could be a problem, so we’ll need to monitor the situation. Given the 30% chance being predicted, I’m not too worried, and intend to go ahead as planned but keep an eye out for another notice on Friday when I can get a firsthand look at the situation. This is getting ridiculous… If this will be your first time with us, the work site is easy to find. Bring your lunch, gloves, water, sunscreen, maybe a jacket, and wear sturdy footgear. We will have tools and provide OJT. Bear Flat As most of you know, we are also taking on a small excavation at a possible site on private land in Bear Flat east of Payson. It’s in a modern subdivision in an old homestead on a long, narrow meadow in a deep, steep canyon along Tonto Creek. We are going to begin that project Sunday, April 6, the day after our next session at Goat Camp – weather permitting, as there is a 30% chance of rain that day as well, and given the location of the site and the fact that we have to cross Tonto Creek to get there, I’m not well inclined to take a crew in there if there is any chance of significant rainfall. We will monitor the situation and make a final decision later in the week as we get more info on expectations of rainfall. Anyway, the site we will be digging is small and appears to be a small, irregular rock-outlined structure of some kind with no prehistoric artifacts on the surface of or around it. On the chance that it might be Apache, Brent and I went down there last week and ran his metal detector over it. What we found was a fair amount of modern trash (cans, wire, nails, bungee cord, etc.) as much as 30 cm deep into the amorphous black, sandy, organic fill. So we’re not sure what to expect – it may well turn out to be nothing at all, but we won’t know for sure until we at least drop a test unit into it. We will need to clear the site of grass, duff, and light brush, though before we start, so rakes and battery weed whackers will be needed in addition to our usual array of tools. Come prepared the same way you would for Goat Camp. As always, please let me know if you are coming – and which days. Cheers, Scott Wood, retired Tonto archaeologist and Rim Country Adviser, leads the excavations at Goat Camp. The schedule I’ve come up with, trying but failing to accommodate everyone’s needs, including my own, is as follows: Saturday, 4/5 Goat Camp Sunday, 4/6 Bear Flat Saturday, 4/26 Goat Camp Saturday, 5/10 Goat Camp Saturday, 5/24 Goat Camp Saturday, 6/7 Bear Flat (if we don’t finish, we’ll pick it up again in the Fall) Saturday and Sunday, 6/14-15 Lab for both Goat Camp and Bear Flat Online from April 23, 2022 drone view of Goat Camp Online from April 10, 2022 “Goat Camp Virtual Field Trip” with archaeologist J. Scott Wood sponsored by Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society (AAHS), Tucson Online from June 17, 2021 “The Goat Camp Ruin Project Volunteer Archaeology in Central Arizona” with J. Scott Wood for Old Pueblo Archaeology Center AAS Goat Camp Tour Sept. 17, 2022 Goat Camp Ruin is located in Payson and was occupied from about 750 to 1280 AD. The site was originally a Hohokam colony that continued to be occupied through the Classic Period. The Classic Period occupation is called "Payson Tradition" or "Northern Salado". After several changes in ownership and extensive pot-hunting, the city of Payson took over ownership of the site. The Rim Country Chapter, with Scott Wood’s assistance, proposed creating an archaeological interpretive site as well as a hiking trail for this 6-acre parcel of land, similar to that of nearby Shoofly Ruin. Scott has led groups of volunteers each spring and fall for the past few years excavating and interpreting areas within the overall complex. The goal is not rebuilding or total excavation, but knowledge and Ceramic Checklist First Season Report Master Development Plan Third Season Report Excavation and Stabilization Plan Fourth Season Report Goat Camp 2018 Fall Plan Fifth Season Report Goat Camp 2019 Spring Plan Sixth Season Report Goat Camp 2020 Spring Plan Seventh Season Report Goat Camp 2020 Fall Plan Rev Eighth Season progress impeded by pandemic Goat Camp 2021 Spring Plan Ninth Season Report Virus Protocol Rev Tenth Season Report
EXCAVATION
SCREENING CLEANING ARTIFACTS
SORTING AND IDENTIFYING ARTIFACTS
JIM BRITTON STABILIZING A WALL |
public education through an interpretive package. Shoofly excavation reports are at the bottom of the 
