SAS Event
Indian Grinding Rock State Park
Saturday, September 28, 2024
12:00 noon – ?PM PT
SAS is pleased to feature an event at Indian Grinding Rock State Historic Park during its “Big Time” Celebration. Each year local Miwok and other California tribes perform traditional dances in the May, Chaw’se Day Celebration and the September Big Time Celebration. This year the “Big Time” Celebration is being held on September 27 and 28th and we offer an SAS event on Saturday, September 28. It will not be a tour led by park staff but an informal get together of SAS members/friends.
This celebration will be held in the Roundhouse in the Indian Grinding Rock State Historic Park. The park is located 8 miles east of Jackson, California, in the Sierra Nevada foothills. This 135-acre park, with its open meadows and large valley oaks is a living history of the Miwok populating the area. Chaw’se is the only State Park in Amador County. The park is named for its chaw’se, a “grinding rock” of marbleized limestone with 1,185 mortar holes, the largest collection of bedrock mortars anywhere in North America. The Miwok used the chaw’se for thousands of years to grind acorns for food. The chaw’se also features 363 petroglyphs (carved images), 2,000 to 3,000 years old.
Indian Grinding Rock State Historic Park features a reconstructed Miwok village with bark houses (u’macha), a large ceremonial roundhouse (hun’ge), a reconstructed game field and the Chaw’se Regional Indian Museum. This museum which represents twenty different local tribes features a variety of exhibits, an outstanding collection of Native Californian cultural items, and a bookstore/gift shop.

Visitors to Indian Grinding Rock State Historic Park can see how Native Californian people lived long before Europeans arrived. The structures at the park were built for use by the Miwok and other Native Californian people as part of their continuing cultural life. Chaw’se is not just an historic site, but a vital, ongoing part of Miwok tradition. The park’s bark houses, roundhouse, and other features are reminders of the Miwok culture, languages, and traditions that live on to this day.

Let’s assemble at the Chaw’se Regional Indian Museum at noon. Consider bringing a picnic lunch or purchasing lunch there. We can explore the museum and park on our own and be invited into the roundhouse for selected ceremonies.

This is an event for members but guests are encouraged to attend and become members.

SAS Tour
Mogollon Culture: Arizona and New Mexico
Sunday, June 9, 2024 to Saturday, June 15, 2024
Sacramento Archeological Society is pleased to offer an archaeological tour in Arizona and New Mexico featuring Mogollon culture. “Mogollon Culture” is a loose term applied to any of the people who were living in the environs of the Mogollon Rim (bounded by the Little Colorado River on the north, Verde River on the west, Pecos River on the East and south into Chihuahua, Mexico) from about 200 BCE to the mid-1400s CE. Several groups inhabited this area. The Mimbres designates one group that will especially be highlighted.

The itinerary for the tour is projected as follows:
June 9, Sunday Drive or fly to Phoenix
June 10, Monday Drive to Fort Apache Museum and view Kinishba Ruins, then drive to Springerville
June 11, Tuesday Guided tour of Casa Malpais, drive to Silver City and in route visit Mogollon and Cat Walk
June 12, Wednesday Tour Mimbres sites
June 13, Thursday Gila Cliff Dwellings
June 14, Friday Guided tour of Western New Mexico University Museum, Treasure Hill, hike to Dragonfly Petroglyphs and experience City of Rocks
June 15, Saturday Hike to Pony Hills Petroglyphs, and China Draw Petroglyphs and attend a farewell lunch in Deming

This is a Members only event and attendance is limited. Reservations are accepted on a first come basis. A non- refundable reservation fee of $50 per person to SAS is required with the reservation. For more information contact sacarcheology@gmail.com.

SAS Tour
Locke, California
America’s Last Remaining Rural Chinatown in America
Saturday, May 4, 2024, 11 AM
Join the Sacramento Archeological Society on a historical walking tour of Locke, CA, the last remaining rural Chinatown in America. The town still looks very much as it did when it included restaurants, markets, brothels, an opera, speakeasies, gambling houses, mills, and canneries. At its height, in the 1920s, Locke’s population was 600. Today, it is about 70.
Recognizing its historical significance, Locke was named a National historic Landmark In 1990.

Our tour leader, Alfred Yee, is a local historian and member of the Locke Foundation.

The itinerary is as follows:
Meet on Saturday, May 4, 2024, at 11 am, at the Locke Boarding House Museum, 13916 Main Street, Locke, CA. From I-5, take Twin Cities Road west, to River Road south. Turn left onto Locke Road. The tour will last approximately 1 ½ hours. Lunch afterward will be either a bring-your-own picnic or at one of the town’s restaurants.

If you plan to attend, please notify Lynette Blumhardt at yellowbean14@yahoo.com. The number of participants is limited. Make your reservations now. Members will be given priority.

SAS Tour
“Fremont: Fossils, Native Americans, and Mission”
Saturday, October 7, 2023 and Sunday, October 8, 2023
Sacramento Archeological Society is pleased to offer a historical and pre-history tour in Fremont, CA. We will visit a Native American site with shell mounds, a historical museum for the city of Fremont, the Children’s Natural History Museum, Shinn House Historical Park and Mission San Jose with its associated museum. Given clear skies we will be delighted by an illumination of the mission as the sun proceeds to set.

The target itinerary is as follows:
Saturday, October 07

1:30 – 3:00 PM PT – Math/Science Nucleus Paleontology Museum in Children’s Natural History Museum: 404 Eggers Drive, Fremont, CA
The museum features several exhibits to highlight the natural history of the local area. Tools of Early Humans show how California Native Americans used natural fibers and rocks to help them survive. The largest hall is Wes Gordon Fossil Hall that includes the Irvington Fossils, Environments through Time, Bones and the Boy Paleontologists Room. Hall of Small Wonders is full of little creatures including foraminifers, radiolarian, and diatoms. Mineral Rock Hall has minerals classified by their chemical families and rocks from California. The Nature Hall includes specimens of different animals and shells. (Open 1:00 – 4:00 PM) Admission – $5.00

3:30 – 4:30 PM Old Mission San Jose tour and 6701 San Jose Dr, Fremont, CA 94539
Mission San Jose was founded on June 11, 1797 by Father Fermin Francisco de Lasuen on a site which was part of a natural highway by way of the Livermore Valley to the San Joaquin Valley. It is the fourteenth of the 21 Spanish Missions in Alta California. Although Mission San Jose was founded nearly 225 years ago, we cannot forget that our story stretches back further into time. Before this was Mission San Jose, it was the Ohlone Village of Oroysom.

Guided Tour at 3:30 PM: $10/adult, $7/child 6-12, free for children under 6
4:45 PM After the tour join the group for a dinner at a local restaurant
6:30 PM Experience “illumination” of the mission and bring a camera

Sunday, October 08
9:00 AM – gathering/brunch in Fremont
10:30 AM – The Museum of Local History: 190 Anza St Fremont, CA 94539 (open 10:00 AM – 4:30 PM) offers interesting artifacts associated with the history of Fremont. Admission – $2.00

12:30 PM PT – Coyote Hills Regional Park: 8000 Patterson Ranch Road, Fremont, CA 94555
The East Bay area’s original inhabitants were the ancestors of the Ohlone Indians, hunters, and gatherers whose skills enabled them to live well off the land’s natural bounty. In those days, tule elk roamed the land, condors soared overhead, and sea otters and fish were abundant in the Bay. At Coyote Hills Regional Park, some of this rich wetland is preserved, along with 2,000-year old Tuibun Ohlone Indian shellmound sites with fascinating archaeological resources. We will tour Coyote Hills and Chochenyo site. Multiple bird species and other life are plentiful in the park. $5.00 for car parking.

3:00 PM Tour Shinn House Historical Park
Shinn Historical Park and Arboretum is a 4-1/2 acre hidden gem in Fremont. The Big House dates back to 1876 and it is surrounded by large trees and beautiful gardens. The grounds also include one of the few remaining Chinese bunk houses, symbol both of the differential work conditions afforded Chinese-Americans and Chinese immigrants, and of a path for circumventing the infamous Chinese Exclusion Act.
If you plan to attend, please notify Paul K. Davis at paulkdavis@earthlink.net. Contributions to SAS are welcome and can be collected at the beginning of the tour. All participants are required to sign a Hold Harmless Agreement at the beginning of the tour.

Sierra Rock Art Field Trip
Led by FSRA
Thursday, September 26, 2019
10:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Friends of Sierra Rock Art (FRSA) (www.sierrarockart.com) are leading a one-day field trip to two Sierra rock art sites for SAS members on Thursday, Sept. 26. Participants will meet near the Boreal/Castle Peak I-80 exit at 10:30 a.m. and depart from Donner Summit at about 5:00 p.m.

Nolan Smith, FSRA board member and Bill Drake, FSRA president will lead the outing.

We will visit two sites: Sky Castle and Donner Summit

The outing is limited to SAS members. Registration will be first come first served basis. Membership in Sacramento Archeological Society is required. All participants are required to sign two Agreements prior to the tour, one for confidentiality and the other for hold harmless.
To register for this outing, contact Jan Johansen at janjohansen@sbcglobal.net.