The Interpretive Association of Western Colorado (IAWC) announces their Winter Lecture Series  @ Bill Heddles Recreation Center located at 530 Gunnison River Drive, Delta, CO. 6:30 -7:30 PM.   The lectures are Free to the Public.  The IAWC is please to present the following lectures,

Tuesday, Februrary 24^th.  Archaeological Investigations at the H.F. Barlow Homestead.  During the summer of 2014, archaeologists from Alpine Archaeological Consultants, Inc. and the USFS – Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, and Gunnison National Forests, with volunteers from the Colorado Archaeological Society – Chipeta Chapter, conducted an excavation at a historic homestead in the Uncompahgre National Forest.  The homestead was located on Iron Springs Mesa on the southern end of the Uncompahgre Plateau and was occupied between 1906 and 1930 by Henry F. and Mary Barlow and their family.  The excavations were supported by a Colorado State Historical Fund Grant administered by the Interpretive Association of Western Colorado and designed to address specific questions about the life of the Barlow family.  The presentation will discuss the results of the 2014 excavation, and will examine the influence that regional and national economic and social trends had on the family, and how those trends are seen in the archaeological record.

On Monday, March 9^th, The Great Delta Gateway from Juan Rivera in 1765 to the Modern Search for Robidoux’s Post presented by Steven G. Baker with Centuries Research, Inc.    One of the great historic travel gateways of the American West, and particularly Colorado, existed on the Gunnison River in the near vicinity of Delta.  Although the Delta area has long been recognized as an important nineteenth-century travel gateway on the North Branch of the Spanish Trail and the Salt Lake Wagon Road, the story of this gateway commenced in the depths of prehistory and factored heavily into the earliest useful descriptions of Colorado.  In this heavily illustrated lecture, local archaeologist and historian, Steven Baker, will describe the Navajo-Uncompahgre Trail, chronicle the travels of Juan Rivera and others into the Delta area, and discuss his ongoing- though now seemingly successful- search for the elusive trading post of Antoine Robidoux   Much of this information has never before been revealed to the general public and corrects some deeply held though erroneous, beliefs. Steven G. Baker (b. 1945) has served as founder, president, and principal investigator of Centuries Research, Inc. of Montrose, Colorado since 1977 and is the director of the local Uncompahgre Valley Ute Project

Tuesday, March 24^th, 60-min. video documentary, “The Best Kept Secret of the Wild West”, the Hanging Flume.  In this still wild land, it stands out, clearly fashioned by human hands, yet unlike anything else in the world.  The Flume is the longest Historic Structure in the State of Colorado.  Travel back to 1891 when the flume carried water 10 miles and, as designed, powered hydraulic cannon at the Montrose Placer Mining Company Claims downstream along the Dolores River. You will see footage of 48’ feet of the reconstructed flume providing a glimpse of what the actual flume box looked like. Discover the intriguing story of the Hanging Flume. It remains a tribute, and most of all, a lasting legacy of human spirit. Brought to you by the Interpretive Association in conjunction with their Annual Meeting.  Open to the public.  For more information please contact Chris Miller, Executive Director @ 970-874-6695 or go on line @ www.interpcolorado.org.

Contact:   Chris Miller, IAWC 970-874-6695 or  info@interpcolorado.org