Project Awards and Recognition

Since 1999, Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project has been recognized
with numerous prestigious awards and honors:

 100 Years of Hometown Heros
Katherine Wells &
 Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project
Summer, 2025

     ​When Katherine Wells came to New Mexico in the 1990s, she moved onto what is now recognized as the largest petroglyph site in the state - Mesa Prieta. Recognizing its archaeological importance, she initiated measures to safeguard cultural heritage through education and preservation. 
     In 1999, she founded Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project (MPPP).  Mission: to record, protect and educate about the petroglyphs.  In 2007, she donated her 181 acres, Wells Petroglyph Preserve, to The Archeological Conservancy for perpetual protection.     
      Collaboration with local educators established two award-winning youth education programs; 4th-7th grade STEAM based curriculum provided free to a dozen schools and the Summer Youth Intern Program in its 23rd year. 
​     MPPP strives, with Pueblos and local land owners, to provide protection for the entire mesa from mining and real estate development. Hundreds of volunteers have dedicated themselves to MPPP and its mission.

Individual Achievement Award
2024 Heritage Preservation Awards
Candie and Lee Borduin

Candie and Lee Borduin of the
Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project
recipients of Individual Achievement Award from
Kelly Jenks, Vice Chair
           Cultural Properties Review Committee.               Photo by Norman Doggett

In 2024, the Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project  celebrated its 25th anniversary as a nonprofit
organization dedicated to site stewardship, protection, and education of cultural sites. Mesa Prieta relies heavily on recorders to support the project’s mission.
Lee and Candie Borduin have demonstrated their passion and dedication toward this end over the last twenty years. The project is better informed about the archaeological features and histories on the mesa due to Candie and Lee’s steadfast devotion to the protection and preservation of Mesa Prieta.
Candie and Lee were trained by Jerry and Jean Brody and Helen and Jay Croty who initially recorded the 188-acre Wells Petroglyph Preserve in the early 90s who documented more than 6,500 images.

Since then, Candie and Lee have been dedicated to mentoring and organizing recording teams.
Thanks to their meteculous work, we now estimate 85,000 petroglyphs and archaeological features
have been recorded.
Although Lee retired from working in the field, he continues to collaborate with Candie on recording methods, data processing and by financially supporting a portion of the project’s database. Candie has served for many years on the Board of Directors as well as the Recording Coordinator for the project and has dedicated thousands of volunteer hours in the field, training recording teams as well as database processing. This body of work continues to be shared with the New Mexico Archaeological Records Management Section (ARMS) for the use of researchers and communities.
There is no doubt that these recording and preservation efforts will continue to serve as a critical
resource for archaeologists and educators which reflects the rich histories of New Mexico.

2021 - New Mexico Archaeological Society - Richard A. Bice Award to Sue Johnston in recognition of her service to the Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project and the archaeology of New Mexico.
Sue's years of service to the Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project in the management of their financial affairs, particularly during the Covid pandemic shutdown have been immeasurably valuable.  In the field as a docent educating visitors about the archaeological importance of the Wells Petroglyph Preserve have been crucial to the organization's success. Her many talents used to benefit the organization clearly deserve recognition. 

Lifetime Achievement Award!
2019 Heritage Preservation Award Recipient
Katherine Wells

Debra Garcia y Griego, HPD Cabinet Secretary; Katherine Wells, recipient of Lifetime Achievement Award and Reginald Richey, Acting Chair Cultural Properties Review Committee.

     Since 1992, Katherine Wells has been inextricably linked the Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Site located an hour north of Santa Fe. With her partner Lloyd Dennis, she built a small straw-bale house on 188 acres and soon discovered she was literally surrounded by thousands of petroglyphs dating to the Archaic, Puebloan, and Historic periods.  Described in her memoir Life on the Rocks, Wells beautifully recaptures her efforts to safeguard the site eventually donating 156 acres to the Archaeological Conservancy to establish the Wells Reserve.  By 1999, Wells had established the Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project with over 100 volunteers to help preserve one of the most significant cultural sites in New Mexico.  MORE

2019 - New Mexico Archaeological Society - Richard A. Bice Award for Archaeological Achievement to Janet MacKenzie in recognition for outstanding leadership of the highly respected Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project for almost ten years as Project Director and Chief Archaeologist overseeing its recording, preservation and educational programs.  For improving the scientific quality of recorded data preservation including state-of-the-art upload of data to three professionally staffed servers across the nation.  Her work has led to national recognition for the largely avocational non-profit archaeological Project.  MORE

2019 - New Mexico Excellence in STEM Awards

The Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project's education programs received an Honorable Mention at the 2019 NM Excellence in STEM Awards from the Air Force Reseach Laboratory.  

​The winners and honorable mentions will be celebrated at a banquet on the evening of Friday, February 22nd at the Albuquerque Convention Center. Sandy Romero, our Education Coordinator, will be present to accept this honor.
​

2017 - New Mexico Archaeological Society - Richard A. Bice Award for Archaeological Achievement to Candie Borduin, MPPP Petroglyph Recording Coordinator - "For her many years of dedicated service to the Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project as a Board Member, docent, webmaster and coordinator of volunteers,  rock art recorders and site stewards.  Ms. Borduin's work has been instrumental in recording over 50,000 petroglyphs and in the design of a GIS linked data base that contains the recorded rock art on the mesa."

2015 - New Mexico Historic Preservation Division - Cultural Properties Review -
Heritage Preservation Awards to:

Janet MacKenzie, Mesa Prieta Project Director - Archaeological Heritage for "elevating the archaeological significance of the Wells Petroglyph Preserve and efforts to move Mesa Prieta into national heritage protective status."  MORE

John Guth, Mesa Prieta Project Board Member - "volunteering to archive thousands of historical records for HPD-ARMS."   John is being recognized for his work with ARMS for the second year in a row!   MORE

2014 - Cultural Landscape Foundation - The Wells Petroglyph Preserve listed among the nation's eleven most endangered landscapes.   MORE

Katherine Wells named one of "Ten Who Made A Difference"
by the Santa Fe New Mexican

Founder of the Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project and preservationist of images on Mesa Prieta for the past 20 years, Katherine Wells received the well-deserved recognition as one of “Ten Who Made a Difference” by the Santa Fe New Mexican.  Featured for her work with the Project, Katherine also received well-deserved accolades for the two award-winning educational programs the Project sponsors – Summer Youth Intern Program and the 4th – 7th Grade Curriculum.

2014 - New Mexico Historic Preservation Division - Cultural Properties Review -  
Heritage Preservation Awards to:
*  The Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project and Candie
    Borduin for "Exceptional leadership and
    training of thirteen teams of volunteers to
    record 40,000 petroglyphs at Mesa Prieta".
*   MPPP for "Educating Hispanic and Native
    American Youth in this uniquely rich cultural 
    resource of Northern New Mexico."
*   MPPP Board member Dr. John Guth and the
    Archaeological Society of New Mexico Rock
    Art  Council for developing a standard for
    submitting archival-ready petroglyph 
    recording reports to the Archaeological
    Records Management System in Santa Fe.

 Shown left to right:  Candie Borduin, Petroglyph Recording Coordinator; Jon Hunner, Interim Director of the New Mexico History Museum; Katherine Wells, President of Mesa Prieta Petrolgyph Project; and Janet MacKenzie, Mesa Prieta Project Coordinator.

2014 - Archaeological Society of New Mexico - Richard A. Bice Award for Archaeological Achievement:  Katherine Wells.

2011 - National Public Lands Day - Volunteer of the Year Recipient: Dr. Richard Ford

2011 - Take Pride in America® National Award 2011 - Outstanding Public – Private Partnership Category for the Summer Youth Intern Program

Katherine Wells accepting the Richard A Bice. Award from John Hayden, ASNM, and CJ Johnson, ASNM President

2008 - American Rock Art Research Association - First Annual Education Award for the 4th Grade Curriculum "Discovering Mesa Prieta: The Petroglyphs of Northern New Mexico and the People Who Made Them".

2006 - Santa Fe Community Foundation - Piñon Award for Educational Service

2005 - American Rock Art Research Association - Katherine Wells, Committee Chair for the Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project, received the Conservation and Preservation Award.

2004 - American Heritage Alliance - Mesa Prieta named one of the most endangered sites in New Mexico

2004 - New Mexico Environmental Law Center - Youth Environmental Hope Award

1999 - National Register of Historic Places - designation to the Wells Petroglyph Preserve

1999 - State Registry of Cultural Properties - designation to the Wells Petroglyph Preserve

Katherine Wells accepting the
American Rock Art Research Association Conservation and Preservation Award, 2005, Reno, Nevada.