Free Smithsonian Museum Day

On Saturday, September 21st, Aztec Museum & Pioneer Village will offer a Free Smithsonian Museum Day featuring FREE admission 10:00am-4:00pm; demonstrations of the vintage Hustler printing press with Norman Garrison and Devin Neeley; free kids craft, and a special program on the Lost Communities of Navajo Dam at 2pm in the Pioneer Village Event Shed.

For decades, Navajo Lake State Park has been celebrated as a haven for outdoor recreation - boating, kayaking, sailing, fishing, hiking, and camping! And it is! However, what is often forgotten is that in building the dam and lake in the late 1950s and early 1960s, four Hispano communities were destroyed and nearly two-hundred families displaced to make way for this U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Colorado River Storage Project. With little recourse, the primarily Spanish-speaking residents were typically compensated for their lands at a rate that made it impossible to purchase anything remotely comparable in the area.

Researcher and author Patricia Boddy Tharp of Farmington spent two years conducting research and interviews with the family members and descendants who once made up the lost communities of Los Martinez, Los Pinos, Rosa, and Los Arboles.

Capturing unique insights into the families and communities that were sacrificed for the dam and reservoir, Patty Tharp’s historical work is preserved in the two-volume set, "The Lost Communities of Navajo Dam," published by the San Juan County Historical Society. Books signed by the author will be available for sale at the museum.

Patty has continued her relationships with the families she met during her research, and brings together several of them for the "Lost Communities of Navajo Dam Panel" discussion. Patty will serve as moderator of the panel, who will share very special memories about both the beauty and struggles of life in these small southwestern Hispano communities and the effects of displacement.

This free public event is part of the museum’s 60th Anniversary celebration. Guests may enter the museum complex through the front door at 125 N. Main or the west gate of the Pioneer Village by the Aztec Splash Pad. For information, contact 505-334-9829. This event is made possible by the generosity of the museum’s 60th Anniversary Sponsors.