Imperial Valley Desert Museum

Who's ready for the next #RedCrossReady? This week's topic really shakes things up: Earthquakes! Join IVDM this Saturday to test your metal, getting to know the emergencies typical to your own backyard and learning the tips and tricks needed to survive them! It all starts this Saturday, 4/17 at 12pm on Zoom. Meeting ID: 969 9322 0567

Help stop the spread of COVID-19. Get vaccinated today! TODAY ONLY, IVDM is partnering with County of Imperial to host a vaccination clinic for Ocotillo residents. If you are a resident of Ocotillo, we encourage you to consider receiving your vaccine against the COVID-19 virus. The clinic is scheduled for today, Thursday, April 15 from 2pm-4pm. ... Advanced registration is REQUIRED! To do so, please visit https://myturn.ca.gov/ The County will be providing the PFIZER* vaccine at no cost to residents. This is a 2-dose vaccine, and a second clinic will be scheduled in roughly 3 weeks for the second dose. All registrants to https://myturn.ca.gov/ will be automatically signed up for the second date and notified at that time. Estimated date for the second clinic is sometime around Thursday, May 6.

Today is #MustSeeMonday! Our object of the week comes from the Levy/Shelby collection: a flat bottomed olla! As regular participants of #MustSeeMonday, you know ollas were used for a variety purposes including: food storage, water, cooking or any other use depending on their size and shape. This olla has a distinct shoulder and long wide neck. Notice the fireclouds and blackening on the outside of the olla!

Join IVDM as we celebrate our next #EveningWithAnExpert event, now streamed for the first time on Facebook! Welcome BLM Wildlife Biologist Peter DeJongh as he presents "Habitats in Flux: Critter Conservation in the Colorado Desert." It all starts now, don't miss out!

Is your household #RedCrossReady? If you've missed any of our talks so far -- COVID-19 or House Fires -- never fear! IVDM has you covered with our "Surviving Extremes" speaker series. Check out the full suite of disaster-preparedness videos on the museum's YouTube channel today! https://www.youtube.com/playlist

Who else is excited for tomorrow night?! Be you reptile, mammal, fish, or fowl, make sure to crawl, run, swim, or fly to IVDM and join us for our next #EveningWithAnExpert event. It all kicks off at 6pm THIS Saturday on Zoom. Meeting ID 985 2189 7809.

Happy New Year from our family to yours! Speedy's resolutions for 2021 include more sunbathing, eating prickly pear cactus, and sleeping! What are your New Year's resolutions?

Today is #MustSeeMonday and the last #MustSeeMonday of 2020! Our object of the week comes from the Levy Shelby Collection: an olla! This beautiful vessel contains a variety of elements notable on pottery, including fireclouds, brown coloring, and its incised markings Incisions are the process of marking or decorating an object with a cut or series of cuts. The incisions on this olla continues around the entirety of the vessel!

The wait is almost over! Who's ready for the WORLD PREMIERE of IVDM's Virtual Education video series? Join the crew of IVDM for a night in at the movies TONIGHT as we debut this new "Traveling Field Trip" series across Imperial and San Diego County! It all starts at 6pm. Check out the invitation below for full details.

Today is #MustSeeMonday! Our object of the week comes from the @ImperialValleyCollege collection! This week’s post is a blast from the past! It features a student’s field notes from the Imperial Valley College’s Archaeological Field School in 1975. Field notes are crucial to archaeological surveys. They help archaeologists understand the culture and social events they study. It is essential for archaeologists to be accurate and descriptive when taking notes. Notice how detailed the field notes are, even including the artifact’s dimensions, weight, and material type!

What are your plans this Saturday? Join IVDM at the movies for the WORLD PREMIERE of our Virtual Education Video Series! The videos (and staff introductions) go live on Zoom at 6pm. We hope to see you there!

IVDM's Fall Concert #SongsOfTheDesert is now available on YouTube! Tune in to enjoy the sounds of violin and percussion from inside the exhibits of IVDM as composer Beth Chafey-Hon evokes the wildlife and natural forces of our local deserts. https://youtu.be/OiTqBf9nTd8

Today is #MustSeeMonday! Our object of the week comes from the Stan Scott Collection: a gold pan! As gold miners had few possessions, many of their tools needed to be multipurpose. A gold pan, therefore, besides being used as a tool for finding gold, was also used as a basin for washing dishes, clothes and the miner himself. In order to make the pan more effective, some people let theirs rust - like the pan featured here! The rusty surface created a roughness which helped keep the gold in the pan as well as a color which made the gold easier to spot. Store owners made fortunes selling pans to gold miners. This gold pan was excavated from the Fish Creek Mountains Wilderness, now protected by the Bureau of Land Management! If you look closely at the top of the pan, you can see an inscription that says Fish Creek Mts Imp Co!

Today is #MustSeeMonday! Our object of the week comes from the Gould collection: a water olla! This uniquely shaped vessel was found hidden away in boulders roughly 50 feet above a canyon floor! No other ollas were found at this location, but there was other evidence of indigenous peoples discovered in the surrounding areas. Notice the olla’s incised rim and beautiful fireclouds!

Congratulations to Congresswoman Deb Haaland on her appointment as the first Indigenous Cabinet secretary and head of the U.S. Department of the Interior for the incoming administration! Congresswoman Deb Haaland is a member of the Laguna Pueblo people and will oversee multiple agencies including both the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Bureau of Land Management. As an institution committed to the preservation, interpretation, and celebration of the deserts of Southern California and its first peoples, IVDM looks forward to her experience and perspective in the role.

A big thank you to everyone who participated in this year's #GivingTuesday! Be sure to tune in LIVE for the upcoming "Songs of the Desert" concert and Fall Fundraiser at IVDM. It all starts Saturday, December 5, 2020 at 6pm on Zoom. Meeting ID 953 1575 8657. Each $10 donation between now and Saturday will be automatically entered for door prizes across the night, including a half-case of Gold Medal wines, an off-road adventure for 3, and a 50" HD Roku TV! And don't miss ...out on our Silent Auction, featuring a 4-night Monterey beach house getaway! Call or email IVDM today to donate and show your support today!

Did you miss last week's #SongsOfTheDesert concert at IVDM? Did you attend and would like to tune in again? For both answers, IVDM has you covered! The IVDM Fall Concert: "Songs of the Desert" premieres THIS Saturday, December 19 on YouTube. We hope you enjoy! https://youtu.be/OiTqBf9nTd8

It's almost time! Join IVDM tonight for our first virtual Evening with an Expert. It's FREE and starts tonight at 6pm. Just click the link below to listen in and watch! https://zoom.us/j/94582948682

Today is #MustSeeMonday! Our object of the week comes from the Ezell Collection: a footed serving bowl! This beautiful small serving bowl features red-on-buff designs! Notice the two spiraling inward red lines that almost intertwine at the center of the bowl! In addition, on opposite ends of the bowl observe five small red designs that vary in length, giving the appearance of mirroring each other!

Today is #GivingTuesday! This year, show your support for IVDM by joining our #FallFundraiser. Call or email IVDM today, or check us out on PayPal. Any donation of $10 automatically enters you for a chance to win incredible prizes. Don't wait too long -- it all ends this Saturday, December 5 during our Fall Concert: Songs of the Desert event! Whether you know us from our #Lowlanders hikes, Field Trips, public events, #EveningWithAnExpert speaker series, or exhibits, IVDM i...s YOUR community museum. Please consider making a gift today, so that we can continue to deliver and innovate new programming and content for years to come. Thank you!

Today is #MustSeeMonday and November is #NationalNativeAmericanHeritageMonth!! Our object of the week comes from the Palmer collection: a pitch-covered basket! Pitch was commonly used to make baskets and vessels waterproof. When heated, pitch acts as a sealant to make baskets, like this one, strong enough to hold water!

Happy Wednesday! The IVDM's Fall Fundraiser and Silent Auction is now OPEN! From now until December 5, IVDM is accepting bids on an incredible 4-night beach house in Monterey, CA. It's easy to participate. Here's how it works:... 1. To make a bid for the Online Silent Auction, simply enter your bid amount in the "Discussion" section of the Event page. The opening bid must be at least the minimum amount of $600 (reserve in place). All bids must follow the minimum bid increase of $5.00. Any bids not adhering to this policy will be declared invalid and voided. 2. The auction closes at 7:15pm on Saturday, December 5. The last and highest bid in the comments section will be the winner. The winner will be announced at the end of the IVDM Winter Concert via Zoom, and then contacted through their Facebook account. 3. The winner will be contacted, via Facebook message, to arrange payment. All payments must be made in full. We accept cash, checks, or credit. 4. If the winner does not respond within 48 hours, the vacation will be offered to the next highest bidder. Happy bidding!

Today is #MustSeeMonday! In honor of #IndigenousPeoplesDay, our object of the week celebrates one aspect of the long histories, cultures, and art of the region's earliest peoples. Our object of the week is: a pictograph! Pictographs are paintings that are applied onto the surface of the rock. Paints are created with various natural minerals. Hematite was used for red pigment, charcoal for black, and gypsum or crushed shell for white. When mixed with a binding agent like ca...ctus juice, the minerals can be transformed into a paint. Typically, pictographs were painted by hand with fingers, brushes made of agave fiber, or sharpened sticks for fine details were also used. Rock art sites are abundant across Southern California and Northern Mexico in Baja, and evidence the vibrant traditions and interactions of early peoples and the lands on which they once did -- and still do -- call home. Today, there are no definite answers to what the various symbols in rock art mean. However, while we may not know their exact meanings, we do know they were, and still are, important.

Looking to shake things up? Reconnect with friends and family this winter as IVDM hosts "Songs of the Desert" with composer and violinist Beth Chafey-Hon. Join us on Zoom for good music, good company, and door prizes. Tickets are $10 and support IVDM in its current and future programming and events. Across the evening, IVDM will be awarding a number of door prizes for the night's attendees, including gold-medal wines, an off-road adventure with our "Day with the Director...," and a 50" HD television! Don't miss out on the closeout highlight of the evening: announcing the winner of our Fall Silent Auction and 4-day beach house vacation in Monterey, CA!

Today is #MustSeeMonday! Our object of the week comes from the Ezell Collection: a storage olla! This storage pot is attributed to the Pai Pai tribe! Pai Pai is one of the five southern tribes of the greater Kumeyaay nation, historically separated from the thirteen bands located in Imperial and San Diego counties by the US-Mexico border. Notice the pot’s beautiful red-brown clay and fireclouds! The clay has a high degree of mica and pyrite. Mica is a type of mineral and pyrite, if you remember from previous #MustSeeMondays is also known as Fool’s Gold!

Today is #MustSeeMonday! Our object of the week comes from the Museum’s storerooms: fossilized coral!! Fossils occur when a living organism dies in a place with water and gets buried in silt or mud! Coral, and other sea life such as oysters and scallops, that have fossilized in Imperial Valley have been dated to be up to 5 to 7 million years old! Imperial Valley has a rich history with water. The Valley was once a part of the Gulf of California until the Colorado River brought silt from the Grand Canyon. The silt from the Grand Canyon created a natural dam, cutting off the Imperial Valley from the Gulf of California, and causing the water to recede! Where we once had tons of sealife, as shown with the fossilized coral in this week’s #MustseeMonday, we now have a sandy, arid Yuha desert!

Today is #MustSeeMonday! Our object of the week comes from Anza-Borrego Desert State Park! Did you know that not all artifacts need to be excavated!?!? One such example of large, immovable artifacts are morteros. Morteros are round holes in boulders used for grinding and made through the repeated use of a large stone pestle. The longer a motero is used, the deeper it becomes! You don’t even need to stop by a museum to appreciate the beauty of these artifacts. The IVDM cre...w recently took an excursion to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park to learn more about how the Kumeyaay used morteros as part of our upcoming film series! Big shout out to them and Park Aide Arnie who escorted us around the park! We hope you enjoy our little sneak peek of production and stick around to see the completed project! In the meantime, we at IVDM encourage you to get out to Anza-Borrego. Just be sure to stay safe and wear masks when appropriate!

Exciting news everyone! IVDM is thrilled to announce that Imperial County has been named as County of the Month by the California State Library and CSL History Section! Included in this, Imperial Valley Desert Museum has been recognized for its hard work in preserving, celebrating, and fostering a sense of community and shared past.... You can check out CSL's coverage of Imperial County history here: https://www.library.ca.gov/california-history/county-month/ Congratulations everyone -- our Valley is truly something special and a place of note and celebration!

Today is #MustSeeMonday! Our object of the week comes from the Museum’s storerooms: A Reproduction of a Cocopah Fish Trap! On previous #MustSeeMonday posts we’ve discussed fish traps and their importance, noting that over 400 rock fish traps were identified around the shoreline of the Salton Sea, or Ancient Lake Cahuilla. Some fish traps, like those of the Cocopah who lived along the lower Colorado River and delta, were made up of organic materials such as net and wood, like the one shown here! Fish were able to swim into the trap, but unable to swim out!