Monday, July 23, 2018
In the summer of 1988, I drove west with Pat and Melanie to Williston, North Dakota to spend the summer digging at Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site. This was our second year there, and many of the people from 1987 were there also including Becky, Wally, Karen, Laurene, Pat A., Don, Lynelle, and probably some others who I have forgotten.
Reconstructed Bourgeois House.
Fort Union was a fur-trading post on the upper Missouri River, reachable in the spring through fall by steamboats. Native Americans brought hides and pelts in to trade for beads, cloth, gun powder, ammunition, rifles, and other items. It opened in 1829, was a Union military fort during the Civil War, and closed in 1867. The National Park Service reconstructed portions of the fort. We did the archaeological excavations to clear the areas being rebuilt and to collect data that would aid in the reconstruction.
I spent the summer in the Indian's and Artisan's House, located next to the main gate. The project director, Bill Hunt, ran the entire site and I helped coordinate the work in the building, which was actually a series of buildings one on top of each other, the bottom being a blacksmith shop. In the center of the building was a large fireplace that opened onto rooms on each side. When you go to the rebuilt Indians and Artisans House, you can see the hearth stones in their original position.
Karen S. in foreground with Pat A. behind her.
We were excavating stratigraphically, which some people didn't care for because: 1) it was very difficult, and 2). because they were snotty about working on a historic period site. The summer saw a lot of tension between people. I well remember the day a dust devil sucked my clipboard up high in the air and dumped two weeks worth of maps into the Missouri River.
Melanie and Pat. A.
There were four crews. I worked mostly with Pat A., Mike, Lynn, and a couple of others whose names I don't recall. On the last day I dug a portion of the room where beads had been stored. Many had trickled down through the floor boards. I sent all of the dirt down to the water screen, and they were a little disgruntled until they saw the thousands of beads.
Joe, Becky, Melanie, and I.
I haven't been back since, I hear the glaciers are mostly gone.
The best part were the mountain goats just strolling around, ignoring the tourists.
I confess to having a crush on Mike. He however met Lynn and 30 years later they are married and living in New York.
We had a lot of fun at work and after work, hanging out.
Mike being serious.
Melanie and Becky lived in the apartment across the hall from Pat and I.
The 1988 crew. I'm in the back row in the green short.
Still friends with many of these people. The University of North Dakota field school was there that summer and one of my co-workers today was a student at the school.
I wrote my Master's Thesis on the animal bones from Fort Union, examining 13,263 bones!
