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Focus

Photograph of ancient stone dwelling ruins.

Bull Creek

In 1981, the National Park Service recognized the Bull Creek area at the foot of the Henry Mountains as a national archaeological treasure. But for reasons unknown, the evidence supporting the Bull Creek Archaeological District was lost, and the location of more than a hundred National Register sites is not known today...

Photograph of a scenic valley with sandstone formations in the background.

Grand Staircase

CPAA and its executive director have worked closely with Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument since its creation in 1996, producing comprehensive overviews of the region’s prehistory in 2001 and 2021...

Photograph of people standing in front of a large sandstone wall.

Private Property

CPAA works closely with private property owners interested in protecting archaeology on their private lands. In some cases, this involves detailed surveys to inform the landowner what kinds of sites are found there and why they are important...

Photograph of college students hiking to an archaeological site.

University of Utah

The Department of Anthropology at the University of Utah has been a critical CPAA partner since our inception in 2005. Not only do university students get valuable field experience, but many of these students have gone on to stellar careers in Cultural Resource Management and academia where they represent the next generation of archaeologists...

Photograph of students gathering in a field.

Southern Utah University

The Department of History, Sociology, and Anthropology at Southern Utah University (SUU) has been a loyal CPAA partner for more than a decade. Dozens of SUU undergraduate students have participated in CPAA projects in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Nine Mile Canyon, and most recently as part of the Bull Creek...

Photograph of red pictographs of human figures on a sandstone wall.

CPAA Scholarship Fund

Students are having a tough go these days with sky-high tuition and the necessity of working multiple jobs to make ends meet. Many abandon their dreams of ever going to graduate school – a necessary requirement for a career in archaeology. CPAA, in collaboration with the University of Utah and Southern Utah University, is working to provide financial incentives for students to participate in field work opportunities to inspire them to take the next step toward a master’s degree. CPAA has established a scholarship fund with a goal of 10 scholarships of $1000 each for 2026. Partners in the private sector have also stepped forward to boost the scholarship fund.

Want to help a starving student? CPAA administers the scholarship fund but does not charge any overhead. In other words, 100 percent of your donation goes to a student scholarship.