May is New Mexico Heritage Preservation Month!  Museums all over the state will offer special events and activities, and you can find out about them from the NM Historic Preservation Division of the NM Department of Cultural Affairs. A calendar of statewide events is available on their website.  Here at Salmon Ruins, we recommend that you celebrate by booking one of our local archaeology tours so that you can get a close and personal experience of some of our thousands of unique and hard to find rock art, structures or geological formations.  To schedule, call the museum at 505-632-2013, Monday-Friday, 9am to 4pm!

To support our visit from the American Rock Art Research Association in May, we created a new rock art exhibit showing some of the more unique examples of local rock art that is hard for many people to visit in person due to its location. Come see before November 2024 when it comes down!

This year is our 35th Annual event at the McGee Park Office Building, and will take place on Saturday, December 7, 2024!  We have 96 vendors and expect a high turnout of shoppers, with hot food in the kitchen provided by the Northwest New Mexico Bowling Association as their own annual fund raiser!  Entrance is $1, a direct donation to the Salmon Ruins Museum, and securing you a chance for a door prize from one of the vendors.  For a booth application, click here.  The McGee Park Office Building is used annually for the San Juan County Fair (the room for sewing, painting and other crafts on display) and is located behind the Sun Ray Casino and parking area.

The Summer Solstice Experience is one of our most unique events!  Join us in the Salmon Ruins parking lot at 7AM on the summer solstice (Friday, June 21, 2024) for a guided tour of Salmon Ruins culminating at just the right time to see the Solstice Marker at work in Room 82.  There is no charge for this event, but you are encouraged to support our museum and research with donations and gift shop purchases!

Our weekend sale with Oralia Lopez and her amazing collection of Mata Ortiz pottery from Chihuahua, Mexico was a big success!  Look forward to another chance this year September 27 & 28 and make plans to attend the Friday night reception 4:30-8:30 with music and refreshments or the Saturday sale from 9am-3pm!  Don't miss it!

Please schedule ALL educational groups with as much advance notice as possible by calling the museum at 505-632-2013 or emailing at salmonruins.education@gmail.com, especially if you are requesting a fee waiver or a guided tour of the site and grounds, as it can be difficult to fit a date into the education schedule at certain times of year.  Tribal groups can be arranged for after-hours visits to ensure ritual privacy by contacting us via the same phone or email.

Farmington, NM hosted the 50th Anniversary of the American Rock Art Research Association (ARARA) in May of 2024, and we were able to offer a reception-celebration for this amazing group, now nationwide, which started right here in San Juan County in 1974 and had it's first meeting in the brand new Salmon Ruins Museum building!  We have a related display in the Alton James Gallery.

There are many events throughout the year.  We'd love to see you at the next one!

After 35 years, Larry L. Baker, our Executive Director, has retired!  He will be continuing to support the organization by helping us get grants, continue our legacy of stabilization work in the region, and help document the many photographs, slides and other items left from the many groundbreaking 1970s projects that he was involved with such as the Puerco River Valley Project, the San Juan Valley Archaeology Project, the Anasazi Origins Projects, and others that were painstakingly recorded by Peter B. George, the official photographer.

The Annual Meeting for 2023 was held at the No Worries Sports Bar on November 14, 6:30 pm.  Although sparsely attended, it included dinner,  door prizes, recognition of Joel Mayer as Volunteer of the Year, elections for next year, and a presentation of our 20+ years worth of work with the regional coal mines on subsidence and how it affects archaeological sites.  Read the Annual Report here!

There are always openings on our board of directors, the people who help us plan for the future, organize and staff our events, and help us keep perspective in the wider world outside of archaeology.  If you care about our mission of protecting sites and helping the public to have better education and experiences about what we do, and live nearby, please consider joining our board!  Background in archaeology is not required.  Meetings are the 4th Tuesday of every month at 6 pm here at the museum (or on Zoom as required).​