Protecting Places on the Land: Elliott Easement
In 2002, Archaeology Southwest accepted Harold and Mignon Elliott’s generous donation of an archaeological conservation easement. The easement protects three archaeological sites in the San Pedro River valley in perpetuity. Harold discussed the donation in a 2007 interview for Archaeology Southwest’s Preservation Archaeology News:
“While we were visiting in the area, we heard that there was some land for sale north of Benson in the San Pedro. When we went out to the property, we saw right away that there was an archaeological site. It looked undisturbed. Mignon was very interested in anthropology and archaeology and had been taking classes at the local community college. We had a sense that we could protect the site, and we bought the land in 1973.
“We met Bill Doelle, Jeff Clark, and Patrick Lyons [when Archaeology Southwest was beginning its work] in the valley. In time a small crew from Archaeology Southwest came out and excavated some in the middens across the ravine. Some of our neighbors were setting up conservation easements through the Nature Conservancy. I met with [Nature Conservancy staff], but we determined that our property wasn’t in the riparian area, so it didn’t qualify for that program.
“In talking with Bill, we thought that we could do another kind of conservation easement to protect the sites, and that’s what we did. I haven’t had any vandalism on the property. Jacquie [Dale, Preservation Archaeologist at Archaeology Southwest] comes over and monitors the site. Besides the easement, another deterrent is the natural slope, which is steep and full of cholla.”
To learn more about archaeological conservation easements, view Archaeology Southwest’s fact sheet here.
