Amick Collection

Collection Description

The Amick Collection consists of materials that were part of an Archaeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA) conviction of Dr. Daniel S. Amick and his associates Scott Clendenin and Donald Musser. Dr. Amick plead guilty to violating ARPA and served a year of probation. The collection seems to focus on lithics, and primarily Paleoindian materials collected from around what is now Spaceport America.

In 2022, when Craig began at the UM he initially encountered the Amick Collection located in KH 204 which is the office supply room (Figure 1). Craig estimated that there were approximately 16 boxes and 2 paper bags of material (Figure 1 (a)). The boxes were old, collapsing, not on shelving, and impeding the flow of traffic in and out of KH 204.

Upon returning to the museum in July 2023, Craig found the Amick Collection still located in KH 204 but a new piece of paper was taped to one of the boxes (Figure 1 (b)). The piece of paper, loosely affixed to a box using a pieces of masking tape, was a note from Garrett Leitterman (BLM) addressed to Arakawa and Hartell. However, the date and header information was curiously removed from the document rendering it lacking in key information. Through correspondence with Leitterman, Craig was able to establish that this note was sent to Arakawa and museum@nmsu.edu on May 26, 2023.

(a) Photograph showing the location of the Amick Collection in KH 204. Note paper taped to the top of the shoebox.

(b) Photograph showing detail of the note taped to the shoebox. Craig determined that the date of this correspondence was 2023-05-26.

Figure 1: Photographs showing the location of the Amick Collection in KH 204.

Leitterman’s note attempts to summarize his understanding of the Amick Collection. Leitterman reports that the Amick Collection came to the University Museum “circa 2011“ at the request of BLM Las Cruces District Archaeologist David Legare. The objects that make up the Amick Collection were removed without permit from the area now known as Spaceport America. Leitterman wrote that Amick Collection objects are the property of the United States and are under the control of the BLM. He further noted that the UM has physical custody of the objects and is serving as an informal repository. Leitterman reports that he is not aware of any paperwork or documentation related to reposing the Amick Collection at the UM, and he does not believe that the objects have been analyzed by either museum staff or NMSU students. Leitterman’s May 26 email expresses an interest in having a student look at the collection and perhaps improve the collection’s storage.

Alexander indicated that at some point an NMSU Anthropology graduate student intended to research the Amick Collection. Alexander indicated that this project was not completed. Craig noted that several of the boxes are annotated with the word “done.” These annotations likely relate to this graduate research project. Craig is not aware of any data or documentation related to that work.

Reshelving Amick Collection

Upon discovering the Amick Collection sitting on the floor of KH 204 in 2022, Craig wanted to move the boxes into a proper storage situation. Craig’s plan was to move the boxes along one of the main walls of KH 200. On 2024-02-08, Craig obtained shelving and on on 2024-03-22 Craig and Jonathan Gilbreath moved the Amick boxes from KH 204 to shelves located on the west wall of KH 200 outside of rooms KH 205 and 206 (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Amick Collection after rehousing on 2024-03-27 by Gilbreath and Craig.

As part of the reshelving process, Craig wanted to bring the Amick Collection into the museum’s collection management system. Craig and Gilbreath discussed the matter, and the decision was made to designate the collection an incoming loan dated 2011. Craig and Gilbreath checked curatorial records in KH 210 and found two incoming loans for 2011 (these were from Miriam Chaiken and Tomas Conelly). Therefore, Craig decided that the Amick Collection will be designated IL2011.03.

The collection is not presently housed in archival boxes, but is instead housed in a mix of boxes and bags. As of 2024-03-27, for the sake of logging simplicity, Craig elected to keep the same boxes for the time being. With the exception of three, all of the boxes have BLM Evidence and/or Chain of Custody labels. Containers that have BLM labels have an item number which is noted on the BLM label. Where possible, Gilbreath used the item number from the BLM labels affixed to boxes or bags as the value to fill in the third place for the IL tracking number. For the three boxes that lacked any kind of number of label, Craig elected to designate them as X# (Figure 3).

• IL2011.03.X1: A white box that contains bags with BLM labels and item numbers (Figure 3 (a)).
• IL2011.03.X2: A dirty brown box that contains bags with numbers and labels, but no obvious BLM evidence tags with item numbers (Figure 3 (b)).
• IL2011.03.X3: A narrow brown box containing bags that appear to have been drawn from various boxes (Figure 3 (c)). In addition to a mix of bags, there are hand written paper forms created by students in 2022. It looks like this box primarily contains projectile points. It appears to have been part of Arakawa’s class.

As of 2024-03-27, the Amick Collection is located on shelving in KH 200 (Figure 2). Gilbreath completed a box level inventory, these data were entered into PastPerfect including location information. At present there are 18 boxes or bags in the Amick Collection (IL2011.03).

(a) Unlabeled box designated IL2011.03.X1

 

(b) Unlabeled box designated IL2011.03.X2

 

(c) Unlabeled box designated IL2011.03.X3

Figure 3: The three boxes of the Amick Collection that lack BLM Evidence and/or Chain of Custody labels.

Figure 1 (a): Photograph showing the location of the Amick Collection in KH 204. Note paper taped to the top of the shoebox. Figure 1 (b): Photograph showing detail of the note taped to the shoebox. Craig determined that the date of this correspondence was 2023-05-26. Figure 2: Amick Collection after rehousing on 2024-03-27 by Gilbreath and Craig.