Forest Fire from McPhee Campground, Site of 2009 Pecos Conference
Today was the second (and final) day of the 2009 Pecos Conference. Like the first day, it involved many short papers, and there was quite a bit of interesting stuff. Several of the presenters specifically mentioned Craig Childs’s advice from the night before about how to tell their stories, and it did seem like the average quality of presentation was better in today’s presentations than in yesterday’s. The morning was mostly taken up with a symposium on heritage preservation, which I only saw part of. The part I did see was pretty interesting, with reflections on the role of private cultural resource management firms and museums in preserving heritage and disseminating information (the presenters were much less enamored of how CRM does this than of the potential role museums can play). There were then a series of miscellaneous talks, none of which was about Chaco Canyon specifically, but several of which discussed Chacoan outliers and aspects of the Chaco system. These included a talk about recent research on the Great North Road, one on the recent work at Chimney Rock, another on the San Juan College field school work on the Bolack Ranch in Farmington, and one on Carhart Ruin, the northernmost known Chacoan outlier. One speaker giving a talk on an understudied Chacoan community in the Chuska Valley rather pointedly refused to name the community, saying that he felt we were just a little too close to Blanding for his comfort, and that while there was a rather noticeable forest fire visible in that direction, it probably hadn’t taken out Blanding yet. There were various other interesting papers not as closely related to Chaco as well, including one on the enigmatic towers of the Mesa Verde region pointing out that they occur at sites of all sizes and in all sorts of topographical contexts, making arguments for their function based on a single use improbable. Overall, it was an interesting conference to attend, and I’m glad I did.
Tower at Mule Canyon, Utah
Gambler's House 
Funny comment about Blanding not yet succumbing to the fire. From the photo, though, the fire looks like it’s trying its best.
It was a pretty impressive fire.
I’ve seen towers in all sorts of locations but that particular Mule Canyon Tower ( another roadside attraction! ) has a great line of sight to the Edge of the Cedars. Maybe it’s a forest fire warning beacon!
The thought also arrives un-bidden; that there are getting to be enough concerned citizens close enough to Cedar Mesa, Comb Ridge, Cottonwood & Butler washes to begin some sort of organized patrols. Heck add Montezuma ( give the good folks around Cortez something to keep ’em busy and out of trouble) and you’ve covered most of the “North Shore”
Walk the walk.
Interesting thought on the towers. It might explain why they’re associated so strongly with the north.
As for patrols, I’m not sure. For one thing, there really aren’t that many people in San Juan County, period, and as we’ve seen a rather high percentage of them are either pothunters themselves or pothunter-sympathizers. Including Montezuma County would dramatically increase the number of people available, but even then I don’t know that citizen patrols would necessarily be that effective. There’s an awful lot of ground to cover. Also, what would the patrols do if they did encounter a pothunting group? Serious pothunters are usually armed, and while ordinary citizens in that area tend to have guns as well, I can see some potential for some pretty nasty situations developing. On the other hand, I don’t know of any other alternative that’s likely to work much better.