Coconino National Forest volunteer earns Governor’s Historic Preservation Award

Release Date: Jun 12, 2019

Contact(s): Peter Piles, 928-527-3476

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz., June 12, 2019 - Spence Gustav of Sedona has earned the 2019 Governor’s Archaeology Advisory Commission award for avocational archaeologist and it is to be presented on Thursday (June 13) at the annual Arizona Historic Preservation Conference in Prescott. 

Gustav has served as the President of the Red Rock Ranger District Friends of the Forest and he also continues to be an active public servant and volunteer. 

Gustav is active with the Red Rock Ranger District since his retirement as a petroleum geologist after being stationed all over the world. He has bachelor’s degree in archaeology and master’s degree in geology. Two local U.S. Forest Service archaeologists Ted Neff and Peter Pilles nominated him for this award.

Gustav organized a team of 25 additional Friends of the Forest volunteers to meticulously document the indigenous pictographs, petroglyphs, and cliff dwellings in the Sedona area by using updated electronic techniques not available when previous mapping projects started more than 20 years ago. This team’s work has assisted the U.S. Forest Service by providing revised, science-based documentation of these fragile heritage sites.

Gustav’s team has also been relocating sites that were recorded before geographic information system technology was available and updating the GIS records for these sites. He also organized a project to scan all the Coconino Heritage Program’s legacy photos and slides. This data set, consisting of approximately 100,000 images, some of these historic photographs date back before the Forest was established in 1906, as well as current photos and slides routinely shot as part of archaeological surveys since 1974.

Another goal of Gustav’s team is to develop an interpretive program allowing visitors who are physically challenged to experience a 3-D digital visit of these sites.

Gustav joins a long list of Coconino National Forest volunteers who have received the Governor’s Archaeology Commission Volunteer awards for service to the public since the award program was established in 1988. These recipients include Gene Riggs, John Sturgis, Gary Yancy, Jerry Ehrhardt, Marlene Conklin, Bernard Carey, Walter Gosart, Tom Woodall, Ronald Krug, and Grace and Paul Schoonover.

Other awards received were in 2016, the Red Rock Ranger District “Friends of the Forest” received the Governor’s private, not-for profit organization award. Also in 2014, the award was presented to the Verde Valley Archaeology Center, partners with the Coconino National Forest, the Prescott NF, the National Park Service and the Archaeological Conservancy.

In the category of historic preservation, a rehabilitation project of the Cliffs Ranger Station will also receive a 2019 Governors Heritage Award. The Cliffs Ranger Station is located on Walnut Canyon National Monument and was one of the first ranger stations on the Coconino National Forest before the land was transferred to the National Park Service in 1934. 

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