Date:
11/8/2007
Contact: Wendel Sloan at 505.562.2253
PORTALES—The public is invited to enjoy refreshments at a recognition ceremony for new interpretive/educational signs and a large group shelter at Eastern New Mexico University's Blackwater Draw Archaeological Site at 1:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 9.
Speaking at the ceremony will be ENMU President Steven Gamble, State Parks Director Dave Simon, and John Montgomery, director of ENMU's Agency for Conservation Archaeology.
ENMU and New Mexico State Parks are celebrating the completion of a project to improve visitor facilities at Blackwater Draw near Portales. Using funds requested by Governor Bill Richardson and appropriated by the New Mexico State Legislature, State Parks funded an $80,000 project to install a large group shelter and new interpretive/educational signs throughout the world-famous site.
Blackwater Draw is owned by ENMU. The site is located seven miles northeast of Portales on NM 467 and one mile from Oasis State Park.
Blackwater was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961. It is one of the most well-known and significant sites in North American archaeology. The site’s importance was first recognized in 1929 by Ridgely Whiteman of Clovis, N.M. Early investigations at Blackwater Draw recovered evidence of a human occupation in association with Late Pleistocene fauna, including Columbian mammoth, camel, horse, bison, saber tooth cat and dire wolf.
For further information, contact Joanne Dickenson, Site Manager, at 575.356.5235.