“Archaeology, Paleontology, and Environmental Sciences Laboratories” Tour

Giant sequoia tree cross-section at The University of Arizona’s Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, photo by John Kay

CANCELLED – On Saturday, July 18, 2020 from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon, Old Pueblo Archaeology Center will sponsor the “Archaeology, Paleontology, and Environmental Sciences Laboratories”
tour starting in the courtyard at Mercado San Agustin, 100 S. Avenida del Convento, Tucson.

This Old Pueblo Archaeology Center summer tour visits two TOO-COOL environmental-science laboratories in Tucson – the Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc Hill and the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, both administered by The University of Arizona (UA). In the first tour segment at the Tumamoc Desert Laboratory, either archaeologist Dr. Anna Seiferle-Valencia or the lab’s director Dr. Ben Wilder will lead us through the Desert lab, which began its existence in 1903 as the Carnegie Desert Botanical established by th Carnegie Institution of Washington and is now listed in the National Register of Historic Places. In 1940 the Carnegie Institution sold it to the US Forest Service for $1, and in 1956 the UA bought it from the US Government, promising in the deed to use it solely for research and education. During its 117 years of existence the Tumamoc Hill and Desert Laboratory staff have been on the cutting edge in the fields of paleontology and desert ecology.

        The UA Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research (LTRR) also has a venerable record of research in archaeology, astronomy, and environmental sciences. Created in 1937 by UA Professor of Astronomy Andrew Ellicott Douglass, founder of the science of dendrochronology, the LTRR has helped establish many other dendrochronology and tree-ring science labs around the world and remains a foremost facility in environmental research, teaching, and outreach, as we will see as docent Randall Smith leads us through the tree-ring laboratory.

The first tour segment to Tumamoc Hill is limited to six vehicles so carpooling is required and no more than 24 people (in addition to Old Pueblo’s tour coordinator Allen Dart) can register depending on whether we can designate six 4-passenger vehicles for carpooling from Mercado San Agustin to the Desert Lab. After we leave there we will return to the Mercado where carpoolers can get back into their own vehicles, and we will caravan from the Mercado to the LTRR for the second tour segment.

Reservations and donation prepayments are required by 5 p.m. Monday July 13: 520-798-1201 or info@oldpueblo.org.

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