GOAT CAMP EXCAVATIONS SPRING 2025 Arizona Archaeological Society - Goat Camp Hey Goat Campers! Looks like we’re gonna get some rain this week, but by all accounts it will have had plenty of time to dry out and warm up by this Saturday, May 10 , so we should have no trouble getting back to work! Same time (0900-1500), same place. It promises to be a good weather day – partly cloudy with a high in the low 80s – with plenty of opportunities to provide stories of your archaeological adventures with which to regale your mother or your children on Sunday (Mothers’ Day). 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. As always, please let me know if you are coming. 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, 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 
