Yuma Sun e-Edition

COCOPAH

nearly a century.

Villanueva said after the property owner passed away, his widow decided to put the residence up for sale and offered to give Villanueva the artifacts.

“I was blessed to receive them,” he said. “It’s good to see they are home (at the museum) where they should be.”

Cocopah Cultural Resources Manager Justin Brundin said: “We were lucky this farmer back in the 1930s decided to keep them” rather than just plow them under as was typical back in those times.

After Villanueva personally delivered the artifacts to the museum, Brundin and Museum Curator

Christine Bryant went to work revamping the petroglyph exhibit in the museum.

“We wanted this to look as realistic as possible,” Bryant said. The changes included adding sand and gravel treated with varnish coating to match the look of thousands of years of exposure to the sun just like the artifacts themselves.

Bryant said she hopes

this realism will give visitors “an understanding that this is an important aspect of the Cocopah history and culture.”

Visitors to the Cocopah Museum will be able to the see newly revamped petroglyph exhibit this month. The museum’s winter hours are Tuesday through Saturday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Opinion

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2021-10-18T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-10-18T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://yumasun.pressreader.com/article/281689733005587

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