ANNUAL MEETING WRAP UP

The SPA annual meeting is finally over and a hearty thanks goes to all of the Chapter 29 members who worked to help make it a success. Our registered attendance was 97, with 75 coming to the annual banquet.

The Friday reception at the Jefferson County History Center was a great time. Sixty One people attended and the bus trip worked out well. Our thanks to the Jefferson County Historical Society for their hospitality and for helping with the wine and food, and to the Bowdish Volunteers for providing the great train shows. All who attended commented on how great the “Native American Lifeways” exhibit looked .

Our special thanks goes to Ed Dlutowski for his best performance yet portraying our guest auctioneer from the past “Charles Darwin”, and to his wife Ginger who showed up in funny yard sale attire as an upbeat outspoken auction aficionado. Ed has previously served as the SPA auctioneer and has portrayed many different colorful characters. His entertainment adds to the enthusiasm of bidding on donated items that will add to the Society’s permanent fund.

After the fact, everything went great. The Clarion Holiday Inn working with Ed Kaufman was excellent in their arrangements. Amanda and Brian did a great job of setting up a fine listing of programs and the after dinner speaker. And the registration and book room crew was hand both days to handle everything properly.

The 2009 SPA meeting will be in Harrisburg and is being sponsored by the PHMC. Along with the usual papers it should provide a neat behind the scenes look at the archaeology exhibit, lab and storage facilities.

2008 Archy Award

Mary Miles was one of the two recipients of the Society for Pennsylvania’s prestigious Archy award. Mary is also a member of the Ohio Valley Chapter and was very involved in helping our chapter and the History Center in the design and creation of last years Native American exhibit. She is also a past officer of Chapter 22 and the Chair of the Societies Education Committee.

C-14 Grants Awarded

The Pennsylvania Archaeological Council and the Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology each awarded Ken Burkett grants for C-14 dating of three components at the Fishbasket site Complex. Beta Analytic in Florida is currently running three separate dates. One is from the Fishbasket North Site locus 3 which is a completely excavated and as yet unpublished village. The Cherico Site which is an adjacent village partially excavated but mostly destroyed by the railroad and adjoining housing construction and 1 date from the Fishbasket site in Armstrong county. Hopefully these additional dates will permit a better understanding of the occupational sequence of these individual villages. A more formal report will be presented at a later date.

New Exhibit Underway

The “Living on the Land” exhibit is now under construction at the Jefferson County History Center and will soon open as in exhibit in progress. It will showcase much of the history of Jefferson County beginning with the Native Americans and proceed through the pioneers, Forestry, Agriculture, Industries, Transportation and Heritage Tourism..

Portions of the “Native American Lifwaysin Western Pennsylvania” exhibit will be incorporated including the Paleo Indian/early mammals case, the Wasicki Cache, the wigwam diorama and the dugout canoe. Other items are also being added to fill in the time gaps to show how life changed over time for the native Americans.

This section of the display along with the Twyford automobile on its new display base should be open beginning in mid June.

JCHC Has New Director

Ken Burkett as recently accepted the position of Executive Director at the Jefferson County History Center. He will begin there full-time beginning June 1 and can be reached at the office at (814) 849-0077..

WQED Rock Art Program

If you missed it, the rock art program can still be viewed by logging on to the WQED web site by going to the the WQED link on the Home Page.

Under choose episode look in the History and “Landmarks” category for: “Rock Art Carvings in Stone” There is also a great program on surface collecting by the Allegheny Chapter under the same category titled “Pennsylvania Digs”.

Kurt Carr with young visitor at the Farm Show	Parkers Landing Panther at the Farm Show