Putting in the Work: Day Two at Fort St. Joseph

Good Morning, Afternoon, and Evening!

My name is Shailee Kurowski, and I’m a senior at Western Michigan University studying Anthropology and Biology, with the hopes of becoming a Forensic Anthropologist. Forensic Anthropologists examine bones and other tissue remains to offer insight and contributions to criminal investigations. I’ve taken and studied several subjects, such as human figure drawing, anatomy, chemistry, biology- and many others, to help me in this pursuit. Working on Fort St. Joseph, I’m most excited to contribute to recording the archaeological record, and fill in the gaps where history might be missing them. Today’s blog details and recounts the happenings of Monday, July 8, 2019, as well as personal thoughts and interjections made throughout the day.

As a group, we started the day with reflections over orientation and our first three days in the field. These reflections included personal insights we took away and how we believed they would apply later in our careers. Looking around the room, I saw sixteen people, sixteen increasingly familiar faces, and sixteen different points of view. It was Heidi who reflected on a play on words remarked by Dr. Nassaney, “archaeology is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna find.” In her reflection, she added, “sometimes, you find nothing. And you have to be prepared for that possibility.” It was through comments and notes like this that it became wonderfully apparent how we may all be living within the same 24-hours, but the way that we experience them- and how it affects us, will vary from person to person.

Continuing with the morning, we began our first day back on site by examining it with refreshed, new eyes. These new eyes were able to better evaluate the ground beneath our feet, and what they found is that it was muddy at best, and swampy at worst. This led us to our first task, which was to unpack the trailer, and go over our trails with gloves and buckets, picking up potentially harmful debris along our way. As this was done, I personally took the time to preach the wonders of Cut Gloves (and look at me, doing it again!) which are gloves made from cotton and sprayed with a special protective coating that makes it nearly impervious to any sharp objects cutting, tearing, or nicking the fabric. Let me add, that I have found these perfect for people who either have tiny hands, or are comically clumsy! I just happen to be both. This cleaning aided us by making it safer not only for those working the site, but for the community that we’re so excited to bring on board with us!

Our workplace banter turned playful as we regrouped for lunch at noon, happy to be in each other’s presence- and becoming even moreso when this presence was superseded by long time Fort St. Joseph friend Mary Ellen Drowlet. She was kind enough to grace us with not only her presence, but cookies as well! And they were beyond delicious, I must add. We were delighted, for those of us new to the site, to finally put a face to the name that we’d heard so proudly used by our Fort St. Joseph veterans. She took her leave at the tail end of lunch, and conversations resumed, turning to the topic of our goals post-lunch. These goals included continued extensive weeding, set up of the wet screens, and utilization of our total station to accurately plot and measure out sites for later excavation. Headed by the lovely Raegan and rugged Cameron, we began to set up our five wet screens. These are used to separate the muck from the objects, which allows us a clearer look at said objects. To do this, we needed to not only clear out the shoulder high weeds, but re-dig and align the trench that runs under our screens. This allowed us to get up close and personal with nature, where we spotted a crawdad, two frogs, a pair of turtles, and spiders so large I wouldn’t want to meet them in a back alley… or anywhere if I’m being honest. I don’t like bugs.

To set up the screens entails a contraption comprised of four posts that attach together at the top, which tents out the legs for stability. From this attachment hangs four metal chains that connect to the metal screws on the hanging screen which contains 1/4inch mesh to catch objects. The smaller, mobile screen that gets set on top of it has an even finer, 1/8inch mesh to hold onto artifacts and other objects. A pallet system bridges over our manmade trench, giving us stable places to stand and utilize our screens. To increase the stability of said screening units, we employ a technique called “mucking” to take river mud and build up areas and corners that may have been previously unstable. To play off that instability, we turned back to our smaller, mucky, weed ridden paths and took some time to fell, pile, and move the weeds back into the muckier areas. This was done to create a stable structure that dried out the mud and gave us stiffer areas to walk and stand on- thus giving us new, quicker paths to our trenches.

Meanwhile, Erika, with the help of Heidi and Maddie, began to lay out the flags for our excavation units by using the total station, which was no easy feat. To create a thorough line of visibility, trees and branches needed to be felled and removed so that accurate readings could be taken, and retaken. It was during these final times, that it began to wind down, and we regrouped to clean the area, and get our tools pre-set for the next day.

Mundane as it is, I enjoyed this time, and the car ride that follows, more than anything else. It is this time that often gets used for reflection, as well as learning when it comes to the history of Niles, and commenting on the days happenings. We reconnect individually instead of working as multiple pieces in a singular cell.

Personally, I’ve noticed the days starting to go by more easily, the aches in my feet lessening as I grow accustomed to being on them all day, and the faces around me growing more kind, and familiar. All in all, I don’t think I would train these experiences, or people, for the world. I find myself fortunate to be in good company. There’s so much to learn in the coming weeks, and even more so as time progresses. I look forward to not only what we do here now, but to what those do in the years that follows.

I thank you for your time, and continued support of the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project, and hope to see you at our public outreach programs throughout the summer!

From the trenches to the trees, this is Shailee K. signing off!