For our first of our lecture series, Jim Walker will present an informative lecture about one of the Conservancy’s most unique Southwestern preserves: San José de Las Huertas. This 40-acre preserve is located just north of Albuquerque and is considered to be the best-preserved Spanish Colonial village in New Mexico. This walled village was occupied from AD 1764 to 1823 and contains as many as 20 undisturbed house mounds with associated structures and features. Jim’s lecture will cover the history of the village as illuminated by a testing project conducted by Nan Rothschild of Barnard College and Heather Atherton of Columbia University from 2002 to 2004.

The Conservancy acquired San José de Las Huertas in small parcels between 1986 and 2005. The first 12-acre portion was donated in 1986 by Shell, Mobile and Enron, after it was discovered during a pipeline installation. Two years later, The Conservancy purchased an additional 8 acres from a private landowner. An additional 5-acre donation was added in 1999, and a 1.5-acre lot was purchased in 2003. A final 15 acres were donated by landowner Susan Blumenthal in 2005 for an easement that would protect the riparian habitat of Las Huertas Creek and Cottonwood Pueblo, which predates the Spanish Colonial village. The preserve was designated a protected site by Congress in 2004 as part of the “Galisteo Basin Archaeological Protection Act.”

James B. Walker (pictured right), a New Mexico native, has worked the for The Archaeological Conservancy for the past 39 years, currently serving as the Conservancy’s Southwest Regional Director. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from The University of New Mexico in Anthropology (BA) and Business Administration (MBA). He has had extensive experience and education in real estate and cultural resource management.