Hobbs teens dig archaeology camps

HOBBS, N.M. (AP) - The New Mexico sun was baking the water out of everything, including the students.

But it didn't stop the group of teens from digging for clues to the past at a 100-year-old homestead west of Hobbs in mid-June.

The camp is the first in Lea County, but not the first for Calvin Smith, director of the Western Heritage Museum. Smith has held junior archaeology camps for more than 40 years at universities and communities across the country.

"I started this one because of my need to teach and the opportunity we had with this homestead site," Smith said.

A homestead site dating to around 1918 was recently discovered west of Hobbs and provided a perfect opportunity for Smith to allow youth interested in archeology to help excavate the site.

The week-long Junior Archeology Camp had seven students. They learned the techniques to excavate the site during two days of classroom training and excavated portions of the site.

"Out of those years I have had students in this Junior Archeology Class go on and become archeologists," Smith said. "It is an accomplishment to get even one student to be excited about something like this."

It was hot work digging in the sun, but at least two of the camp's students were excited after they made the first discovery Wednesday.

"It made it all worthwhile coming out here and getting hot," said Matthew Gomez, 10.

He and Cross Van Hooshier, 11, took to digging in a grid square abandoned by fellow students. Several inches below the surface they found a cow bone and piece of a tin can.

"It is really cool to find something no one else found," Van Hooshier said. "I have always loved archeology. I love fossils. I love history. I love paleontology."

Boys weren't the only ones digging in the desert sand with trowels. Ella Zhang, 14, was intent on her section of grid, surfacing long forgotten shards of crockery.

"I think it is fun," she said. "I have never really done this before. It is pretty cool to find artifacts that are from people who lived here. I think I could get used to it."

Ashley Williams, 13, was also learning to like archeology.

"I think it sounds exciting," she said, "being out here with friends, having fun and finding something."

Information from: Hobbs News-Sun, http://www.hobbsnews.com