Joe Pachak

Artist and Archaeologist

Bluff, UT

October 14 - 15, 2024

“Oh, here's a very good stand, a very fresh sage…take a pinch and smell it. It’s a beautiful, beautiful smell.” That’s Joe Pachak, artist and archaeologist of Bluff, Utah. Addressing the group, his voice is a captivating whisper, words spoken slowly and enunciated with a humble sincerity. Originally from Pueblo Colorado, Joe was drafted into the military in 1968 before he could get his highschool diploma. 2 years later as a helicopter guard, he was flying across the country when he happened to pass over Bluff. “I looked down and I said, an oasis in the desert!... I didn’t get back to bluff for 20 some years, but I feel metaphysically drawn to this place…I see a connection through time. I can count the steps for me to get here.” Now having lived in Bluff for decades, Joe is a beacon of knowledge and care.

Hiking together through Butler Wash, Joe stops every few steps to point out details invisible to the untrained eye: yellow ochre can be used for pigment, oakleaf sumac berries make a vitamin C rich soup, the morphology of a chert flake reveals a hertzian cone. Arriving at a water carved sandstone alcove, we carefully gather around an ancestral puebloan home. “What we're seeing is truly an amazing sight that's been ripped to holy hell. It has been disregarded.” Describing the stylistic details of the masonry, equal parts of awe and grief color Joe’s steady stone. “If I teach you an ethic, it is that another person's culture can be as sacred as yours, and it's not a possession. It's a concept. It's an idea. It grew over time and has evolved into something magnificent… if only we could understand. If we tear it up, there's no understanding whatsoever. If we don't have reverence for it, it doesn't mean anything to us.” Joe’s reverence is apparent, as is his dedication to this place and his community. The Westies couldn’t be more honored to have been given just a small piece of the inspiration Joe has to offer. 

by Ben Anderson