Archaeologists debated an age-old question at the 2000 Pecos Conference this weekend: Is it ethical to "sell" and popularize Southwestern rock art and ruins?

The lively debate on Saturday, the second day of the three-day conference at the Dolores Line Camp, featured a group of panelists who spoke about their individual roles in popularizing ruins and answered questions from audience members. David Roberts, a freelance writer and author of In Search of the Old Ones, moderated the debate.

Most of the discussion centered on the question of how to preserve backcountry sites while keeping them open to the public.

Roberts said that his interest in ancient ruins started after he found his first backcountry site. He then began taking long solo hikes in the Southwest, which culminated in him writing an article for National Geographic and a book about the ruins he found.

But he said he had some disturbing feedback from land managers and archaeologists who said that his readers had beaten a visible path to some of the ruins that were unknown and untouched before he published his work.

Bill Lipe, a professor of anthropology at Washington State University and former president of the Society for American Archaeology, pointed out that there are two perspectives to the debate. Historians can point to the damaging effect the 1890s publicity had on sites and artifacts in the area, while others have argued that more visibility, not less, stirs the public to protect cultural resources.

"To a greater extent, having people in the backcountry works against pot-hunting in the backcountry," said Lipe. "Just imagine a pot-hunter digging when a group of Elderhostel participants happens upon him."

Lipe advised the group to plunge in and try to minimize the collateral wear and tear on the sites by encouraging education and promoting backcountry guides who foster respect for the ruins.

But he also strongly advised archaeologists to take a proactive approach to public policy. "The fate of these sites is going to be settled in public policy decisions," he warned.

After Lipe spoke, Vaughn Hadenfeldt, a wilderness guide with Far Out Expeditions from Bluff, Utah, discussed the roles that guides play in the process.

"It’s a guide’s job to instill a sense of reverence for the land that they take visitors to," said Hadenfeldt.

He explained that he works with land managers to help protect sites.

Another topic that drew a lot of comment was the idea of keeping ruins off maps and out of guidebooks.

"Guides should discourage or prohibit the use of maps and GPS systems," he advised.

Panelist Bruce Hucko, a freelance photographer from Moab, Utah, agreed with Hadenfeldt. He advocates keeping the specifics of site locations out of the captions that often accompany photos of Ancestral Puebloan ruins.

Actively keeping backcountry sites secret from the general public was not the tactic that Mark Stiles recommended. Stiles, the BLM regional manager from Montrose, said he thought the question was a moot point because "people are already here and more are coming."

"I think our ethical responsibility is to find better ways to make sure that we do more than advertise our cultural resources," said Stiles.

Several audience members asked Stiles if the BLM had been active in promoting a site-stewardship program. Stiles said that site stewardship is important to BLM.

Recently, the Colorado Historical Society gave a grant to the San Juan Mountains Association to implement a site-stewardship program.

These programs try to involve backcountry explorers in helping monitor the condition of backcountry sites.

"Site stewardship is a really critical program, because it allows the community to have an ownership in taking care of these places," said Victoria Atkins, an archaeologist and acting director of the Anasazi Heritage Center, on Monday.

Other audience members charged that the speakers were "elitists," who wanted to keep the general public from seeing backcountry sites.

"The public is not a great beast," said one audience member who identified himself as a "layperson."

"We live in a democracy. What is out there is for the public to see, and hiding it from the public is promoting a Hamiltonian type of government."

That might be true, but the speakers responded that they had seen too much destruction in the backcountry to simply stand back and watch more looting and unintentional damage to sites take place.

"I think that education is a key," said Atkins, "but you don’t have to have a Ph.D. to have a role."

Whether artifacts should be left in the backcountry or excavated was also discussed in depth.

The concept of leaving ancient sites intact and keeping them as "outdoor museums" has been promoted by Fred Blackburn, a Cortez guide and author.

Roberts also advocated this approach, which is a way of keeping artifacts in the backcountry sites for others to see them.

These artifacts are not endangered, and similar artifacts have been collected by museums.

Atkins said the definition of the outdoor-museum concept varies.

"I think sites are better off intact on the landscape," said Atkins. "You shouldn’t always assume everything has to be excavated."

Several members of the audience spoke heatedly about their belief that museums were keeping artifacts from the public in "locked drawers."

Deborah Stevenson, chief of interpretation at the Edge of the Cedars museum in Blanding, Utah, defended the role that museums play in preserving treasures for the general public.

She said that the Edge of the Cedars offers behind-the-scenes tours and opens the collections frequently to researchers.

After the debate, field reports resumed, and archaeologists gathered for a beer-brewing contest, chuckwagon dinner, and dance.