Andy Senti Honored -- The following article entitled "Arrowhead hunts paid off" was written by Gary Massaro for the November 29, 2001 edition of the Rocky Mountain News, Denver, Colorado. Lakewood - When Andy Senti was a kid, he'd take a slalom stroll around the sagebrush desert in southwestern Colorado, searching for arrowheads. "We lived among the Anasazi and Ute cultures there before us," he said. "That was my principal form of recreation, to go out and look for arrowheads." So Senti didn't have much of a social life. But he picked up more than arrowheads. He found a calling, which for 50 years has been his life.
He works for the Bureau of Land Management. Officially he's a realty specialist. But he's also a historian who helped build a museum to the Indians who once lived in the Four Corners area. He donated about $100,000 out of his own pocket to get the museum stocked with artifacts from previous desert dwellers, and get it cataloged and on display. Senti, 76, could have retired long ago. But to do what? "I don't have any other responsibilities, " he said. "I adopted work as a recreational outlet." He takes a lot of work home. "He works 364 days a year, from 6 to 6," said BLM spokeswoman Sheri Bell. "This is his life, his passion, his love." Friends like to say that Senti takes Christmas Day off. But he got stuck at the office during the blizzard of '82. "I had some snowshoes in the car for some > reason," he said. "The McDonald's was across the street. And I figured It's better get something to eat. And I spent the night at the office." Senti left the family homestead southwest of Durango when he was 14 to finish high school and start college. He was in the Army Air Forces during World War II. "I was a washed-out cadet," he said. So the military made him a mechanic. And he spent most of his tour in the South Pacific, dismantling and cleaning airplane engines. > > After the war, Senti finished college at Utah State University on the GI Bill. He joined the BLM in 1951. "I just stayed and stayed and stayed," he said. "It has a vast historical record if you go back." And he is part of it. Colleagues will honor Senti during a reception from 1 - 3 p.m. today at the state office, 2850 Youngfield St.