Dog Days of Archaeology The Vladem Contemporary Site
Before construction began on the future Vladem Contemporary art museum site, the Office of Archaeological Studies did not turn up many earth-shattering discoveries.
Local veterinary records dating to the era have only recently been destroyed, so it is impossible to know who owned the dachshund.
Nonetheless, field director Susan Moga and her crew made a few interesting finds in the course of test excavations around the former Joseph F. Halpin Building—including a mummified dog who met an unexpected end in the 1960s.
Blinman excitedly calls one excavation in the north parking lot “some of the most beautiful, even, layer-cake stratigraphy any of us have ever seen in our lives.”
Field director Moga calls the dog “a highlight of my year,” referring to both the surprising and relatively mundane nature of the find. The tame results of the archaeological investigation meant that the staff’s preliminary research was sound. The Vladem project, a second museum location for the New Mexico Museum of Art, was cleared to move forward. Office director Eric Blinman discussed the project in a fall 2020 Museum of New Mexico Foundation member lecture, “Conversation with the Archaeologists: Discoveries at the Vladem Contemporary.” The presentation can be viewed at museumfoundation.org/ online-event-recordings/. “Everyone within the Department of Cultural Affairs and the Foundation has breathed a tremendous sigh of relief that Susan and her crew found nothing spectacular, and nothing that we really didn’t know had existed prior to our doing the historic research in the area,” Blinman says. The new museum is being constructed around the skeleton of the 1960 Halpin Building, whose structure is informed by the 1921 Charles Ilfeld & Company Warehouse. At some point during the warehouse’s renovation to the state records archives, Blinman recounts, “A small dachshund appears to have stumbled into the area, died, and became mummified in the debris. It had a rabies tag from 1962-1963.”
Those layers clearly delineate a general history of the site, the very bottom consisting of compact alluvial deposits with caliche mud. Atop those are early Railyard-era features that reveal 1880s construction clues, including the toothmarks of a backhoe that most likely eliminated any Spanish Colonial ground surface. Roof tiles from the construction of the original 1909 depot, which still stands beside the museum site, were also found, along with remnants from the Capital Coal Company. Other discoveries include rotten wooden railroad ties from the famed Chili Line Railroad, which discontinued active use in 1941, and chunks of metal alloy that appear to be raw material for a one-time foundry operation in the Santa Fe area. Blinman says the Ilfeld Warehouse has “really good bones,” upon which to build the new museum. “It’s ironic that it’s known to us as the Halpin Building, and very few people know it as the more historically important Ilfeld Warehouse,” he continues. “What makes it special is the solid design and construction work by Gordon Street and the contractor’s crew. They created a strong building with great potential for several reuses.”
To support the Office of Archaeological Studies, contact Lauren Paige at Lauren@museumfoundation.org or 505.982.2282.
16 museumfoundation.org
