Annual Joint Meeting - Denver, Indian Peaks and Northern Colorado Chapters

Saturday, April 12, 2025 – 1:00pm to 3:15pm MST (IN PERSON ONLY)

In lieu of our monthly meeting, we've got a great joint meeting planned for Saturday, April 12, 2025 in Boulder.  Our meetings are free and open to the public.  Come and socialize with members from the Denver, Indian Peaks (Boulder) and Northern Colorado (Ft. Collins) CAS Chapters and enjoy two presentations.  This is an in-person meeting only and will be worth the drive. Speaker abstracts and biographies are provided below.

The annual joint meeting will be held at the City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks (OSMP) HUB meeting space located at 2520 55th Street, Boulder.  Google Map of Meeting Location

It is a live attendance only meeting, and the current event schedule is as follows (all times approximate):

1:00pm - 1:15pm - Arrival and social gathering (light refreshments will be available)

1:00pm - 2:00pm - Presentation by Steven Hughes: Rock Images from Glen Canyon

2:00pm - 2:15pm - Break

2:15pm - 3:00pm - Presentation by Jeannie Tanaka: A report on the Swallow Site

 3:00pm - 3:15pm (+/-) - Conclusion and travel to Wild Provisions Brewery

After 3:15pm - Optional social gathering at Wild Provisions Brewery

Presentation #1 - The Lost Rock Art of Glen Canyon and the San Juan River

Speaker: Steven Hughes

Abstract: In January 1963 the gates on the Glen Canyon Dam closed and the waters began to rise. When full pool level was reached, scores of rock art and other archaeological sites were flooded. Although formal archaeological surveys done before the flooding recorded many of the sites, little of that information is available to the public today. Formal surveys were not the only chroniclers of these sites. Howard F. Hughes organized several float trips on the Colorado and San Juan Rivers in 1960 and 1961 to record some of the soon-to-be-lost sites. He took over 200 color slides of petroglyphs and pictographs found at 24 sites now inundated by Lake Powell and its branches. Howard’s son, Steven Hughes, accompanied his father on many of these trips and also took photographs. This presentation by Steven highlights the photographic record and the general locations of these lost sites documented by his father and him over 60 years ago.

Bio: Steven was introduced to Southwest rock art by his father 65 years ago. He obtained his law degree from Stanford University and practiced law in Oregon for 41 years until he retired. He and his wife Laurence moved to Fruita, Colorado about six years ago in order to have easier access to the Southwest rock art and archaeology sites they enjoy visiting.

Presentation #2 - Swallow Site: 7,000 Years of Subsistence on the Edge of the Denver Basin

Speaker: Jeannette L. Mobley-Tanaka

Abstract: Swallow Site, a rock shelter in the Hogback valley west of Denver, was excavated by Denver CAS in the 1980s and '90s. The recent publication of the site report, Archaeological Investigations at the Swallow Site, Jefferson County, Colorado, as CAS Memoir #7, makes it the most thoroughly analyzed and reported rock shelter in the valley to date. With a 7,000-year occupational sequence, including well-defined Early Archaic layers (rare in the area) and rich artifact and environmental datasets spanning the Early Archaic through Early Ceramic, Swallow provides critical data to address a variety of important questions in Colorado archaeology. This presentation will explore how the ancient indigenous inhabitants utilized the hogback valley seasonally and what we can learn about population movements in and along the Colorado Front Range from comparisons to other sites in the area.

Bio: Dr. Jeannette Mobley-Tanaka is a principal editor and major contributor to the Swallow report. She is Professor Emeritus from Front Range Community College in Ft. Collins, where she taught 4-field anthropology for 25 years. She received her B.A. and M.A. from the University of Colorado, Boulder, where she also worked as Research Coordinator for the Yellow Jacket Archaeological Project at the CU Museum. She received her PhD from Arizona State University. Jeannie has conducted archaeological research throughout the American Southwest as well as on the Great Plains and in the Maya Region. She also writes historical fiction for middle grade and young adult readers under the name Jeannie Mobley.