The State Land Office strives to protect New Mexico’s irreplaceable cultural properties located on state trust lands. Prior to approvals for ground-disturbing activities proposed by Land Office lessees, cultural resource inventory reports are submitted for review by the trust’s archaeologist, who then consults with the State Historic Preservation Officer and other impacted agencies.

All identified cultural properties are preserved in place whenever and wherever possible, but archaeological excavations must sometimes be conducted to recover priceless artifacts and information prior to construction. The artifacts and reports of archaeological excavations and analysis are then preserved in perpetuity within the Museum of New Mexico system, partially offsetting the loss of the resources themselves.

Land Maintenance Fund monies are used in an ongoing protection and stabilization program to help preserve cultural properties. This effort includes assessments of the condition of standing architecture at Navajo pueblitos and other sensitive historic sites.

Sometimes site protection consists of simply building a fence to control damage caused by livestock, wildlife and people. It can also include stream bank stabilization to prevent large-scale losses of cultural resources to the effects of erosion.

The Pueblo Blanco project will mitigate erosion caused by a deep bisecting arroyo, thereby protecting ancient puebloan plazas and room blocks that sit atop the unstable banks.

Crews constructed retaining walls made in part of juniper bales collected from forest thinning projects. The juniper trees were compressed and formed into several hundred bales, then stacked and staked in place to create stabilizing walls.

Post completion, the structure was entirely covered with earth, and revegetated with grass and shrubs native to the Galisteo Basin.

The New Mexico State Land Office maintains an active role in the identification and preservation of cultural resources on trust lands. It is estimated that 250,000 archaeological sites exist on trust lands, although less than 5,000 sites have been identified and documented.

Among the more well known of these are: the Folsom Site, near Raton; Pueblo Blanco, located in the Galisteo Basin; Sapawe, near El Rito; and a number of other Navajo pueblitos that the Land Office has recently stabilized, including Old Fort, The Citadel, Truby’s Tower, and Pork Chop Pass, all located in the Four Corners area.

Our lessees are submitting reports of archaeological survey and excavation for review, consultation, and approval prior to obtaining clearance for their proposed actions on trust land. Through its own contractors, the State Land Office is also directly sponsoring archaeological work in order to facilitate the investment of government funds available for environmental improvements on trust lands. Wherever possible, all identified cultural properties are avoided and preserved.

Stabilization efforts completed in spring 2004 accomplished the preservation of the Navajo pueblito known as the Pork Chop Pass site. The State Land Office contracted with San Juan County Museum Association to replace the mortar lost from the standing masonry, stabilizing the entirety of the existing ruin and serving to prevent further deterioration. Their site steward program will continue to monitor the site, document any changes in its condition, and protect it from undesired effects of trespassers.

A 300-year-old Navajo pueblito perched high on a boulder on state trust lands in the Four Corners region underwent a face lift which was completed in late June of 2005. The project cost is $70,000 and was part of a $1 million appropriation secured by Commissioner Lyons from the 2005 Legislature to preserve cultural properties on trust lands.

The State Land Office, in partnership with the San Juan County Museum, contracted with Navajo masonry specialists to stabilize the structure, known as "Three Corn Ruin." According to Land Office archaeologist, David Eck, Three Corn Ruin survived to modern times in relatively good condition, however within the last generation archaeologists noted that deterioration had accelerated somewhat.

The masons used three cubic yards of sediment to make the mortar for the project. The material was gathered, transported, hoisted to the mesa top, and mixed with water by hand to the proper consistency. It took hundreds, if not thousands, of bucket loads of sediment and water to produce the mud mortar required to refill the open mortar joints that had developed in the standing masonry. Now, with proper maintenance and the absence of natural disasters, the remaining structure should remain stable for at least another 100 years.

In 2005, Commissioner of Public Lands Patrick Lyons allocated $50,000 to protect archaeological sites in the Galisteo Basin. The State Land Office owns 20,000 acres in the Galisteo Basin, which include a 500-year-old pueblo, known as Pueblo Blanco.

Commissioner Lyons and the State Land Office are partnering with Santa Fe County, the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service and the Archaeological Conservancy to implement the Galisteo Basin Archaeological Sites Protection Act, passed by Congress in March, 2004.

The commissioner is the only partner to commit money to protect the 24 archaeological sites, totaling 4,591 acres, designated in the Act.

Sites listed in the Galisteo Basin Archaeological Sites Protection Act are: