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Friends oF red rock canyon 13
we bought a little Jeep, and for hundreds (now
hundreds of thousands) of miles, we followed
Jack and Elaine’s 4WD white Chevy over
every two-track road we thought would lead to
rock art. It led us to day-long hikes and pan-
oramic locations with exquisite petroglyphs.
With more than 50 members, SNRAA offers
Petroglyph panel in Nevada
George Phillips has lived in the Nevada desert
most of his life. His family moved to Las Vegas
with the Union Pacific Railroad in 1904 and
stayed. George was born in
1946 and semi-matured as
a cactus-hugger, actually
a mesquite-hugger. He left
home as an immature adult
to explore stuff in the world,
contemplate life in Peru, and
eventually got drafted and
was chased around the moun-
tains of Southeast Asia for
a couple of years by people
who reshaped his sensitivities. George Phillips (right) and Friend in. Now, he is retired, not from
Believing college would be easier than work- desert terrain of Nevada.
new members a valuable desert experience.
For example, Harold Larson, a long-time
member, does his own fact-finding. He not
only relates some rock art motifs to local his-
tory, but he is a discoverer of unusual desert
secrets like dinosaur fossils he recently spotted
in Southern Nevada. Harold has a ceaseless
curiosity of darn near everything else.
The essence of Nevada’s
desert lies beyond the words
and photos. Our attraction to
this arid landscape is per-
sonal.
If anyone is interested in
feeling the crunch of desert
rock beneath their boots,
SNRAA will welcome them.
Meetings are held the fourth
Monday of each month from
6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the REI
store in Boca Park, 710
South Rampart Boulevard in
Las Vegas and are open to
the public, free of charge.
Judy and I found what we
wanted.
ing, he attended the University of Oregon
studying anthropology and business. In spite of
acute hostility for accounting classes, he maneu-
vered into a commercial bank-
ing profession to survive a then
frail economy. Strong influence
from groups like the Friends of
Red Rock Canyon, SNRAA and
Archaeo-Nevada Society chal-
lenged his predictable life. ++He
left his banking career to join
UNLV’S Public Lands Institute
as a cultural site stewardship
manager for the area he grew up
threats from critics, but to wander around the
Summer 2020