Stickler speaking on Medicine Wheel

Joe Stickler will speak on “Medicine Wheel Park: The First 18 Years” at 7 p.m. May 20, at the Medicine Wheel, in Valley City in the Barnes County Historical Society Lecture Series.

People who attend should bring their own lawn chairs. In case of bad weather, the location will be the Barnes County Historical Society Museum.

In 1992 at Valley City State University, Stickler and his students began the construction of Medicine Wheel Park to develop a better understanding of Native American astronomy in the region. The project soon expanded beyond the walls of the classroom to involve the community.

The park features a horizon solar calendar with 28 spokes, representing the number of days in the lunar cycle, radiating from its center to a large circle measuring 213 feet in circumference. Six spokes extending well be-yond the wheel are aligned to the positions of sunrises and sunsets on the first days of the four seasons.

The design of this rock sculpture was inspired by the Big Horn Medicine Wheel in Wyoming. This 30-acre park overlooking the VCSU campus and the Sheyenne River valley also includes a meridian calendar, a distance-scaled model (1 to 15 billion) of the solar system, and nature trails through the adjacent wooded hillside including a segment of the North Country National Scenic Trail.

Stickler is the chair of the Division of Mathematics, Science, and Health and Physical Education at VCSU where he has been teaching chemistry and astronomy for 28 years. From 1981 until 1992 he was the director of the VCSU Planetarium. He has a doctorate in organic chemistry from the University of Illinois and completed his undergraduate work at Ohio Wesleyan University. A native of Ohio, Stickler previously worked at the University of Colorado at Denver and at The College of Ganado on the Navajo Indian Reservation in northern Arizona.

More information about Medicine Wheel Park is available at mecinewheel. vcsu.edu or by contacting joe.stickler@vcsu. edu.

All lectures are held in conjunction with VCSU. They are free and open to the public.

For more information, contact Wes Anderson at 701-845-0966

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