Archaelogical Project Implementation Process | Questions and Answers | Research Priorities

Lincoln County Land Act of 2000 and Lincoln County Conservation, Recreation, Development Act of 2004
These Acts stipulate that 85 percent of the proceeds from the sale of 13,500 acres of public land in Lincoln County be deposited in a special account in the Treasury of the United States and shall be available to the Secretary of the Interior without further act of appropriation. One purpose of this special account is to make funds available annually for “inventory, evaluation, protection and management of unique archaeological resources in Lincoln County," as defined in the Archaeological Resources Protection Act.”

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Ely District Office, other federal, state and local partners established the Lincoln County Archaeological Initiative to allocate monies annually for approved projects in each Round of this process.

Lincoln County Archaeological Initiative Process

Prior to August 1st each year the BLM will establish research priorities for archaeological projects in Lincoln County.

From September 1st through October 31st, nominations will be solicited for projects based on specified annual initiative priorities. Nominations addressing these priorities will be submitted to the BLM Ely District Office as a nomination package with a narrative describing the project and addressing the archaeological resources funding criteria guidance. A cost and milestone worksheet will be included.

The Archaeological Resources Team (ART) consisting of staff specialists from federal, state, and local agencies and tribal government will meet to screen and rank nominations in priority order for funding.  All nominations will be presented to the BLM Mojave-Southern Great Basin Resource Advisory Council (RAC) at their quarterly meeting, during the Public Comment period. (03/23/2009 - 04/21/2009) 

Ranked nominations will be forwarded to the Partner's Working Group in February 2009.  Their preliminary recommendations will be  forwarded to the Executive Committee, who will then forward them to the Director, Bureau of Land Management in early May.  The Director will approve the recommendations in August.

Round 1 Approved Project Nominations - The Director, Bureau of Land Management approved the top seven projects:
2007 Nomination Summaries (in PDF)

ART Members
Tom Burke, BLM
Nate Thomas, USFS
Maurice Frank Churchill, Duckwater Shoshone
Rebecca Palmer, State Historic Preservation Office
Kurt Braun - BLM

Round 2 - Call for nominations will be open from December 15th through January 15th 2009.  Click here for the Nomination Package.