Hello again fort followers! This is
Cece, coming at you from under a tree on WMU’s campus. We ended our work in the
field last week and said our sad farewells to Niles on Friday. This week we are
working in the classroom to tie up some loose ends and make sure our findings
are stowed away properly.
A big
portion of Monday and Tuesday have been spent finishing up notes for each of
our excavation units. These notes involve writing a big summary on everything
that has happened from start to finish in our little 1x1 meter units, from
digging through 20th century dump debris to carefully trowelling around musket
balls and conglomerations of bone 30 centimeters below the surface. Hours have
been spent typing up our hand written notes from the field into Microsoft Word
documents, as well as scanning hand drawn maps onto the computer so that we can
have digital copies of everything.
Our field
director, Erika Hartley, is working hard on a site map that covers the
happenings at the Fort St. Joseph site from 2002 through the 2019 season,
depicting excavation units by the year they were opened up. It spans from the
floodplain to the new trenches beneath the landfill.
Our
photographer, Hannah, is working with field student, Shailee, to photograph all
of the artifacts that are pertinent to continued study, such as bones that are
large enough to be identified, uniquely shaped beads and patinated glass. Each
artifact that is photographed is recorded so that the photo may be easily
found, along with a description as to why it was photographed.
All of the
artifacts that we have found and sorted into individually labelled bags are
being double checked for accuracy, inventoried, and placed in their proper
homes. Come fall, they will be organized into the larger collection of Fort St.
Joseph artifacts. This will be completed by students taking independent study
during the fall semester.
Lastly,
envelopes for t-shirts that were ordered during the open house are being
addressed and prepped for when the t-shirts arrive, which should be some time
early next week. There is still lots to be done out here in Kalamazoo, but we’re all having a good time reviewing
and polishing up the hard work that was completed while out in the field. I
never knew how much I could miss working in a dump. It has been a pleasure
working on this project from start to finish, and we thank you so much for
following along and supporting our endeavors. Until next year friends!
