Hi Fort Friends,
It’s me, your intern Chloe! The past few weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind consisting of float samples and artifact displays. I have been diligently working in the FSJ lab on Western Michigan University's campus during the off season. Today, I want to tell you about what I have been up to as well as what we are doing in order to prepare for the annual WMU archaeological field school and upcoming outreach events.
In the past few months, I have been working on sorting through a flotation sample taken from one of the excavated units during the 2021 field season. I am currently separating all of the artifacts and ecofacts in order to for someone to further analyze them in the future. By doing this small and tedious task, we are able to get a better sense of what was happening on the land where this unit was dug. Although I am not quite finished yet, there seems to be a lot of charcoal popping up. What other artifacts and ecofacts do you think I'm finding? Share your ideas in the comments!
The next task that I am involved in is working on alongside Erika to prepare an artifact display for an upcoming event that will be held at the Niles Public Library. On May 4, 2022, at 5:30 pm, the Project will be hosting a "Book Signing and Meet the Authors" event with its partners the Niles District Library and the Niles History Center. The coauthors and collaborators of Fort St. Joseph Revealed and the newly released People of the Post will be available to sign your copies and answer questions. Attending this event would be a great opportunity to learn more about the Project, current research goals, and how you can get involved!
Erika and I have also been working on preparing for this summer's field season. Beginning on June 30, 2022, our annual Western Michigan University archaeological field school will commence! This marks WMU's 46th annual field school and it will once again be held at the historic site of Fort St. Joseph. We will be bringing back even more events that had been previously cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. For example, the in-person archaeology summer camps are back! Three one-week camps will be held for middle school students (July 18-22), high school students (July 25-29), and lifelong learners and educators (August 1-5). Campers will learn about archaeology, the history of Fort St. Joseph, and our Project's research goals. They will also be able to come work alongside excavating with Project members and university students! How fun is that! Visit the Niles History Center's website to register and for more information.
We are constantly updating our
Facebook (The Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Site) and Instagram
(@fsjarchaeology) pages with the latest information on all these events. Make
sure to subscribe to our newsletter so that you can also follow the events tab
and like us on Facebook! Thanks so much for reading and stay tuned for more
updates.
Stay safe,
Chloe
