GOAT CAMP EXCAVATIONS SPRING 2025 Hey Goat Campers! As you know, the Spring season is coming up soon. Our focus at Goat Camp will be on finishing Room 43, getting to the floor of Room 8, doing some of the small excavations around the site, including one of the roasting pits, and, of course, stabilization. Operations will continue as before, working on Saturdays from 0900 to 1500. We will also be expanding our operation to include a small excavation project in Bear Flat east of Payson (18 miles or so, the last third of which is dirt, making it even more susceptible to weather than GCR). Goat Camp is obviously our priority but we’re also committed to doing this. Unfortunately, it has its own unique scheduling problems and at the moment I can only commit us to two days this Spring. Fortunately, it is a very small site (assuming it is a site, given its lack of artifacts) and should not take too long. Scheduling times on site will likewise depend on knowing who is going to want to participate and where they are coming from and whether we’ll need to carpool in. Anyway, the schedule I’ve come up with, trying but failing to accommodate everyone’s needs, including my own, is as follows: Saturday, 3/8 Goat Camp Saturday, 3/22 Goat Camp 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 As always, about a week before each field date, look for a notice to confirm the date and discuss weather conditions, etc. and I’ll see y’all soon! Cheers, Scott Wood, retired Tonto archaeologist and Rim Country Adviser, leads the excavations at Goat Camp. 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 
