Interns Samuel Heckle and Zachary Matthews
By Zachary Matthews
Working with Wayne National Forest for the summer is such a privilege. The other intern Sam and I have been at this for almost exactly a month now, and we have grown so much in such a short time. I have noticed a great improvement in our efficiency in completing surveys.
Most days we are hiking around the breathtaking Appalachian mountains utilizing archaeological methodologies to locate prehistoric Native American sites, but we have also been learning how to research the land through historical documentation before we survey.
Going through historical documents and tracking land purchase records is proving to be very valuable before we get out into the field. This preparatory research gives us an idea of what we might find, and what we might not find and why. One area that we surveyed had a high potential for artifacts, but we were very confused when we weren’t uncovering anything. After going through the documents, we realized that we were not finding anything because everything had been disturbed by the previous land owner, which happened to be a salt and coal mining company.
Stay tuned. As we continue to learn, I will continue to post.
Ohio University interns with faculty and staff from OHIO and the Wayne National Forest.
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