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2010 Annual Meeting Highlights

NRAF's 7th Annual Meeting was held in Mammoth Lakes, Ca. Participants were treated to papers investigating the connections between rock art on the eastern and western sides of the Sierras, as well as visiting several spectacular rock art sites in vicinity of Bishop Ca. Abstracts of the papers presented are available in the Q2 2010 edition of the Great Basin Glyph Notes (Volume 9-2), or by clicking here.

Nevada Rock Art Foundation 2010 Award Recipients

Friends of The Foundation Award

This occasional award is given to recognize contributions to the cause of rock art conservation, interpretation, or research made by other organizations or individuals. It provides the opportunity to publicly acknowledge NRAF’s strategic partners.

This year we recognize Washoe County Parks and Regional Planning for their support on behalf of the Court of Antiquity Project.

Alanah J. Woody Award

This occasional award honors NRAF’s founding Director’s dedication and commitment and is given to acknowledge exceptional service to NRAF and its mission through specific projects and/or a long history of exemplary service.

This year NRAF named two recipients of this award.


Anne Higgins was recognized for her history of volunteerism in the field, having worked on projects at Dry Lakes, Mt Irish, Lagomarsino, Sloan Canyon, Grapevine Canyon, and Lincoln County among others, and for contributing her expertise to designing and creating databases that advance our capacity for data analysis and research.


Dr Darla Garey-Sage (not pictured) was recognized for her countless hours contributed to the unglamorous but essential tasks related to ensuring adequate operational support to allow nraf to implement its mission. Dr Garey-Sage has devoted herself to greatly improving our public outreach programs, public education programs, and through her work on the Development Commitment writing grants and staffing point of entry events, enhanced our fundraising capacity. Her work revamping the content and style of the NRAF newsletter has been exemplary and vital to improving the way we communicate our mission to NRAF members and the public.

Holmes Volunteer of the Year Award

Given annually in honor of the exceptional volunteerism of its inaugural recipients Jack & Elaine Holmes, this award recognizes a history of outstanding volunteerism to rock art preservation.


Carolyn Barnes-Wolfe was recognized for her countless hours of donated labor in the field and the office and her role in improving the accuracy of field drawings, both in the way that that data is collected and processed for final archiving.

Nevada Rock Art Foundation Student Prize Prize

Sarah E. Branch received the inauguaral NRAF Student Prize, sponsored by Gnomon Consulting, Inc., a Carson City-based cultural resource consulting firm owned by NRAF members Cary and Eric Ingbar. Sara received a check for $200 to support research and writing of her paper. She presented “A Tale Told on Tufa: Recording the Rock Art at Dynamite Cave, Churchill County, Nevada” at the 7th Annual Meeting.



Sarah holds an undergraduate degree in Geology and is currently enrolled in the master’s program in archaeology at the University of Nevada, Reno. She has been employed with mactec Engineering and Consulting as an archaeological technician since 2004.

Past Award Recipients

Friends of the Foundation Award

2004- Lost City Museum
2005- NDOT; WNRC&D-NRCS; RSCVA; Dan Smercina
2006- Nevada State Museum; Dean Haymore and Storey County
2007- UNLV Public Lands Institute; Nevada Archaeological
Site Stewardship Program
2008- Nevada BLM

Alanah J. Woody Award for
Exceptional Service

(formerly the Executive Director’s Award for Exceptional Service)
2004- Shari Chase
2007- Elaine Holmes; Anne McConnell
2008- Pat Barker; Don Murray
2009- Ralph and Cheryln Bennett

Holmes Volunteer of the Year Award

2004- Jack & Elaine Holmes
2005- Kathleen Hayes
2006- Anne McConnell
2007- Ralph and Cheryln Bennett
2008- Jeff Thelen
2009- Bill James

Don D. Fowler Lifetime
Achievement Award
(formerly the President’s Lifetime Achievement Award)

2004- Eileen Green
2006- Alvin McLane
2008- Don Frazier

Past Annual Meeting Locations

Overton NV, 2004
Reno NV, 2005
Tonopah NV, 2006
Boulder City NV, 2007
Minden NV, 2008
Mesquite NV, 2009