SantaFeToday.com Santa Fe’s Hometown News
By the Historic Santa Fe Foundation
Historic Santa Fe Foundation presents the March Salon El Zaguán monthly lecture series with Tim Maxwell on A Brief History of Santa Fe’s Archaeological Ordinance on Thursday, March 21, 2019 at 3pm at Historic Santa Fe Foundation’s El Zaguán, 545 Canyon Rd, Ste 2, Santa Fe. There is no charge for admission for HSFF members and a non-members entry fee is $10. Membership information on HSFF’s Join & Give page.
ABOUT THE LECTURE:
Santa Fe was the first municipality in the nation to have a comprehensive ordinance to protect archaeological sites and resources when encountered during construction or development planning. City fathers recognized the value of the city’s traditional and historic architecture shortly after statehood in 1912, but it took another 75 years to acknowledge the value of the past under the city’s streets. Archaeologists now know that the Santa Fe locale had people living here by at least 4,000 BC. Downtown Santa Fe and the banks of the Santa Fe River were inhabited by several small communities in the 1200s and later.
Tim Maxwell will talk about the early efforts to preserve Santa Fe’s character and the evolution of ordinances leading to archaeological protections. In the mid- to late-1980s, there were two important episodes in downtown expansion that helped prompt the establishment of the archaeological law. Dr. Maxwell was involved in both and will cover them in the talk.
