ARARA 2025 Conference

Visalia:
Visalia, the county seat of Tulare County, is located roughly half way between Fresno and Bakersfield. See the red arrow below. It has a population of about 150,000 and is surrounded by productive agricultural land.
This area was originally settled the Yokuts and Mono Native American tribes. The first written record of the area is from Pedro Fages in 1722. Non-indigenous people settled the area in 1852. Visalia was designated a city in 1874.
Visalia has a semi-arid climate. Days are mostly dry and sunny with moderate temperatures. May high temperatures are 81 degrees with an average temperature of 68 degrees.
Visalia is an agricultural center (grapes, olives, cotton, citrus, livestock) along with manufacturing and distribution. Much of the rock art is on private land and our local committee is working closely with landowners to get us permission to visit the sites. Source: Wikipedia

Visalia’s pedestrian friendly, historic Main Street shopping and dining districts are right outside our hotel and Convention Center doors. If you’re a beer lover, Visalia's brewery district combines traditional and inventive craft brews in a friendly, walkable area. If you’d prefer to try some California wine, The Vintage Press Restaurant in downtown Visalia has "one of the best wine lists in the world" according to the Wine Spectator magazine.

The closest airport to Visalia is Fresno Yosemite International airport, a distance of 39 miles or about a 40-minute drive. The V Line shuttle bus (VLINE @Visalia.city) runs 7 days a week (but not Memorial Day) between downtown Visalia and the airport. Airlines that serve Fresno are American, United, Southwest, Alaska, Delta, Allegiant, Aeromexico, and Volaris. Bakersfield, where ARARA last met in California in 2009, is about 77 miles from Visalia. Sacramento, San Francisco and Los Angeles are each about a three-hour freeway drive from Visalia.

Visalia is famous as the Gateway to the Sequoias, trees that are some of the tallest known anywhere. The city of Visalia, in the crossroads of one of the country’s richest agricultural regions, has long been a center for farm, orchard and dairy production. The community takes great pride in sharing what’s homegrown. We’ll be driving through orchards and ranch country to reach some of the private rock art sites we’ll visit.

Map source

The conference will take place at the Convention Center in downtown Visalia, adjacent to the Marriott Courtyard. We will have room rates at this location along with other nearby hotels.

We are planning some unique events for this conference. We are hoping to do a large book sale of duplicate items from our archives. We are also planning on an extra day of field trips. Yes three days of trips!!!

We are currently planning 16 trips for meeting registrants. Some of these will be on private ranch property never before accessed by ARARA members. We’ll also visit favorites on Forest Service, Park Service and BLM lands, plus we'll be offering trips to Kern River locations and we're working on expeditions to the Wind Wolves Preserve. The jewel in our crown will be repeated tours of the Archaeological Conservancy's Jay T. Last Archaeological Preserve, also known as Exeter Rocky Hill, featuring some of the most spectacular painted shelters in California.

The Archaeological Conservancy (TAC) is a nonprofit organization focused on preserving archaeological resources on private land. During the American Rock Art Research Association (ARARA) conference, TAC representatives Cory Wilkins and Linsie Lafayette will give a presentation highlighting California preserves with rock art, as well as touching on the origins of TAC, how preserves are acquired and managed, detail upcoming tours, and provide an outline on how funding works to achieve the goal of site preservation. There will be time for questions afterwards, and complementary issues of American Archaeology magazine will be available.

Our preliminary agenda is as follows:

• Thursday May 22: Board meeting/Registration/Workshops
• Friday May 23: Field trips/Reception/Registration/Rock art documentation workshop
• Saturday May 24: Presentations/Registration
• Sunday May 25: Presentations/Banquet
• Monday May 26: Field trips
• Tuesday May 27: Field trips
  

 The Tulare County Museum, located in Visalia, has a marvelous display of local Native American basketry.