In February 2024, the Verde Valley Archaeology Center and Museum welcomed John Rose, PhD, RPA, as VVAC’s Archaeologist following his retirement from Prescott National Forest (PNF). Rose has had an extensive career working as an aircraft mechanic in the U.S. Air Force, conducting research in the jungles of Belize, and working as an archaeologist for various federal agencies in Idaho and Arizona. Rose didn’t stay retired for long after leaving PNF, starting his own archaeological services firm and providing his skills and expertise to VVAC. 

The Verde Valley Archaeology Center and Museum’s Native American Heritage Garden is a vital community resource dedicated to research, learning, and stewardship. This vibrant garden space not only preserves cultural heritage, but inspires others to embrace regenerative practices in their own yards and gardens, fostering a deeper connection to the land and sustainable living.

The Verde Valley Archaeology Center and Museum showed their ongoing support for the Arizona Site Steward Program and hosted the social networking event for the 2025 SSP Statewide Conference this April in Camp Verde. 

The Verde Valley Archaeology Center and Museum’s newest exhibit, Indigenous Arts, is a comprehensive inter-tribal exhibit that highlights the talents of Native American artists both past and present, and from the American Southwest and beyond. 

The Verde Valley Archaeology Center and Museum welcomes Archaeologist Margaret Hangan as our new Director of Collections. Hangan’s extensive career spans 30 years working for the United States Forest Service (USFS), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and in the private industry. When Margaret Hangan recently retired from the USFS, she had no plans to stop working. Alongside her new duties at VVAC, Hangan plans on focusing her efforts on researching, preserving, and sharing the history of African Americans throughout the development of the West.

Throughout 2024, the Verde Valley Archaeology Center and Museum has pushed the boundaries of the physical museum space by inviting institutional collaborations, conducting research projects, and hosting engaging programming all while furthering our mission of preservation, conservation, and education. 

The Verde Valley Archaeology Center and Museum has launched a Virtual Educational Field Trip program designed to share the archaeology, culture and, history of Native Americans and the Southwest to students across the globe, starting with the fourth graders of one elementary school in Pennsylvania. 

The Verde Valley Archaeology Center’s Native American Heritage Garden has been transformed into a living laboratory and a place of collaboration, education and research, most recently through our corn study analysis and supply of agave pods to Desert Botanical Garden.  

 Rob Estrada, VVAC’s Ethnobotanist, and Walter Trevisan, VVAC volunteer and retired seed industry corn breeder, have been growing and evaluating 14 different native heritage species of corn in the dry farm section of the garden. This portion of the garden utilizes the traditional Hopi style farming method of relying mostly on rain and moisture with the addition of minimal irrigation supplement. 

The annual Pecos Conference brings together students, professional and avocational archaeologists alike, providing a community environment to share novel research and network with others in the field. The conference is unique for its outdoors setting, which takes place every August under Southwestern skies. 

The Verde Valley Archaeology Center and Museum’s Director of Archaeology, Kathryn Turney, provides the museum with a wealth of knowledge regarding archaeology, Indigenous Peoples Law, and Cultural Resource Management (CRM). Turney also works for a Cultural Resource Management firm and advocates for Indigenous peoples, striving to educate others about contemporary and longstanding issues tribes and tribal members are facing.

The Verde Valley Archaeology Center and Museum is involved in a comprehensive Smithsonian research project on the paleogenomics of agave with Desert Botanical Garden and the National Autonomous University of Mexico. 

VVAC is a partner of this larger project that aims to learn more about prehistoric agave trade networks, plant domestication and the subsistence strategies of people over time. The center will be supplying agave and yucca for plant testing.

The Verde Valley Archaeology Center and Museum’s volunteer archaeological survey crew performs important field research and data collection in partnership with Prescott National Forest, making discoveries that further the knowledge of the United States Forest Service and the archaeological community in the region. 

 VVAC has a contract with Prescott National Forest (PNF) to perform surveys of forest land to look for signs of human habitation and artifacts. VVAC volunteers donate their time to perform this work and the United States Forest Service (USFS) pays the billable hours to VVAC, benefiting the nonprofit organization. 

The Verde Valley Archaeology Center and Museum celebrated Arizona Archaeology and Heritage Awareness Month throughout March with a variety of programs and events that highlighted the local history, archaeology, and cultures of the Verde Valley region. 

The Verde Valley Archaeology Center hosted a lecture with Karen Armstrong who participated in the first excavation of the Dyck Cliff Dwelling in 1962.

 Armstrong’s talk, titled “My Tiny Part in the History of the Dyck Cliff Dwelling (and Adventures Before and After)” took place on Saturday, Feb. 17.

The Verde Valley Archaeology Center and Museum would not be functioning without the dedicated efforts of our many volunteers.

 In 2023, VVAC had 46 volunteers who recorded a total of over 7,600 hours in their combined volunteer time. Thirteen of those volunteers recorded over 250 hours in 2023. With the hypothetical example of paying each volunteer $20 per hour, that would add up to over $150,000, a staggering amount.

The Verde Valley Archaeology Center and Museum has had an eventful year full of exhibits, programs, lectures, and events and looks forward to continuing this success for years to come through contributions to VVAC's end-of-year giving.

This November, the Verde Valley Archaeology Center is celebrating and reflecting on the idea of harvest, especially in the ways it ties into both our museum and our Native American Heritage Garden. 

 Rob Estrada, VVAC’s Ethnobotanist, oversees the 12 acre Native American Heritage Garden and Pathway. Estrada decides what will be planted and when, trail maintenance and oversees projects for garden volunteers. 

 The property has two primary garden sections: an irrigated garden and a dry garden. The irrigated garden houses post-colonial species brought in by the Spanish. These crops include a variety of chilies, squash and peaches. 

The Verde Valley Archaeology Center & Museum has collaborated with Grand Canyon National Park to bring to life the exhibit One Canyon: Three Worlds - Inside the Grand Canyon National Park Collections. 

The Verde Valley Archaeology Center not only functions as a museum, but is dedicated to providing a space for expanding education while fostering connection and collaboration.

 Part of the center’s core mission is to educate and create awareness of the Indigenous Peoples of the Verde Valley, as well as stewardship and conservation.

 Besides the physical exhibits of the museum, VVAC puts on lectures, classes, workshops, hikes and events, as well as partnering with other institutions for symposiums and conferences.

The Verde Valley Archaeology Center and Museum has been working on creating digital images of their textile collection through their grant funded Dyck Textile Imaging Project.