Del Rio’s 8th Archeology Fair surpasses all others, say organizers

November 2, 2008
By Bill Sontag
Feature Writer

“It was another good day above ground,” quipped Doug Baum, “Camel Man,” educator and caretaker of “Gobi” and “Richard.”  At the Amistad Archeology Fair, Saturday (Nov. 1), Baum’s huge four-legged charges, also stood tall as living symbols of civilizations more than 5,000 years old.  

Baum’s jest about staying alive also suggested that not all archeological studies are derived by digging in dirt. The Archeology Fair at the Whitehead Memorial Museum, 1308 S. Main St., fairly screamed the point with colorful demonstrations of ancient cultures, kept alive through stubborn preservation of traditions and life ways.  Baum’s Texas Camel Corps, headquartered at Valley Mills, north of Waco, relives the appearance of the U.S. Army’s mid-19th century experiment to use camels for transportation across the arid southwest.

 

Baum and dozens of other exhibitors, demonstrators, crafters, and educators crises-crossed and ringed the tree-shaded grounds of the Whitehead Museum, Friday and Saturday.  Friday’s demonstrations were limited to school groups when all fourth-grade classes from the San Felipe Del Rio Consolidated Independent School District descended – on schedule – to the Fair.  National Park Ranger Lisa Evans, education specialist at Amistad National Recreation Area, is both founder and coordinator of the event. 

“They also came from Comstock, Brackettville, and the Little Schoolhouse in Del Rio,” Evans said.  “In all, they tell me we had 1,100 kids here this year, about 100 more than in 2007.”  For four years, Evans has set aside the Friday before the Saturday public event to focus strictly on schoolchildren.  “And this year it went very smoothly, better than it ever has.  We sent information out to all the teachers about what the kids would be doing, and the teachers prepared the kids well.   

“Our only problems with scheduling happen when kids from one group are so engrossed they don’t want to leave, even as kids from the next group are arriving.  With that overlap, it gets pretty crazy,” Evans said, laughing.  “And Saturday was a wonderful day, enjoyed by all.  We had families – kids who were here yesterday, and today returned and brought their parents – like they have done in for the past three years. 

 

Children from Sacred Heart School were unable to come, Friday, due to a teachers’ training day, Evans said, but Principle Aurora Guerra offered students an extra credit option.  With Evans, she prepared a checklist of all the exhibitors, and Saturday the purple pages were in evidence all over the grounds as kids visited, listened, learned, and got participation sign-offs from event demonstrators.   

According to Museum Director Lee Lincoln, the Sacred Heart students joined 800 other visitors to the Archeology Fair on Saturday, swelling attendance beyond previous records.  Though a few exhibitors from last year were unable to attend because of previous commitments, the Fair was enriched with new participants such as Raul Lopez Jr. and his family and friends, all practitioners of the Mexican version of rodeo, charrería.   

Lopez, his son, Raul III, 17, and daughter, Marcela, 9, carry on multi-generational family traditions at the competitive charreada events.  Lopez is a member-in-good-standing of two charro clubs, Asociación Charros de Acuña, and – in Del Rio –Charros Cuatro Palmas. Saturday, the family and 15-year-old Dalia Flores arrived early to tether Flores’ dun-colored mount, “Estrella” ("Star"), and set up displays of saddles and other charro gear. 

Dalia and Mariela ride sidesaddle in a competitive team of escaramuzas, young women who display equestrian skills in individual and team performances, often at charreadas where other family members are participating.  Children flocked to see the girls in their showy, multi-layered, bicolor dresses, get hoisted aboard “Estrella,” while adults marveled at the roping showmanship of Raul Lopez III. 

Evans noted the draw to the museum’s plaza, saying “When Raul did his trick roping, he got quite the reaction from the crowd,” and Baum echoed with his own assessment:  “For me, the highlight was the young charro, seeing that young boy twirling the rope, and perpetuating his own heritage.” 

Exhibitors scattered across the Whitehead lawn included a loom weaver, blacksmith, chuckwagon cook, a stone weapon and tool knapper, and many others.  For example, the San Antonio-based Bexar County Buffalo Soldiers’Association wearing the uniforms, demonstrating the equipment, displaying their weapons and explaining the role of Black U.S. Cavalry troops on the western frontier added an eye-catching, humorous and educational attraction for adults and children.   

Children were invited to participate in the messy, but gratifying process of making their own adobe bricks, forming clay vessels, grinding dried corn with stone on metates, making replicas of ancient painted pebbles found in cliff shelters across the Lower Pecos region, and creating rock art replicas that also mimic 4,000-year-old paintings found here.  Other kids learned how to use ancient hunting tools – rabbit sticks, atlatls and spears.

 

Many of the demonstrators are firm in their intention to return next year.  Fort Worth Blacksmith Chuck Stone has packed his forge and anvil along with tables full of samples of his work for each of the eight years of the Fair. “In fact we’ve been coming here for 11 years,” Stone said, explaining that Lincoln had sponsored a “Step Back in Time” event for the three years prior to the Archeology Fair, and he attended those, too.   

But, Stone will also return in March 2009 and present blacksmithing classes to all interested, again at the Whitehead Memorial Museum.  Questions about reserving space for the classes should be directed to Lincoln at the Museum, 830-774-7568, for details. 

Lopez said he and his family are eager to return in succeeding years, after their first gratifying experience, Saturday.  “We had a great time, and are very glad to hear that the audience did, too,” Lopez said.  Baum, also on the heels of his first trip to the Fair, affirmed his desire to return.  “I have presented my camel programs at the Smithsonian Institution, and I’m telling you, everybody demonstrating here at the Archeology Fair is worth presenting there on the mall in Washington D.C.   

“Absolutely,” Baum said.  “We’ll check the dates when they’re set, because my schedule gets crazy in October.  But this one is top notch, and I want to move it to the top of priorities.  This place [Val Verde County] is so rich in history and culture, and Del Rio is very, very lucky – what with the park [Amistad National Recreation Area] and Seminole Canyon [State Park & Historical Site], and in town your historic acequias [San Felipe Agricultural Manufacturing and Irrigation District].  These are things that you just don’t see in most other places.”  

Lincoln, agreeing with Baum’s testimonial, said, “I tell you what, every year it gets better.  I just loved the charros, and I got to hug the neck of a camel.  They are so sweet.  The Archeological Fair is just a wonderful thing, but the greatest reward is to see the look on the face of a kid that just made an adobe block or painted a pebble, showing that they have such a feeling of accomplishment.  And you know what else?  None of this needs batteries!”