Ranger: This field school is at a historic archeology site that dates to the 1920s
We have eight local high school students from the Matanuska Susiitna Valley
who are helping us test the site to try and find out a little better the dates that the
site was occupied.
And they're doing this by digging fifty by fifty centimeter tests, and recording artifacts
and soils that they dig.
Mainly based on the artifacts that they find we going to date the site based on the age
of the artifacts.
It's a great way to share the history of this town with the kids who live here
and hopefully get them interested in their own history, and then in archeology.
Student: The first day was harder cause of the roots in the top layer.
Now we're starting to get into the good stuff.
Today we found a three-inch, four-inch medicine bottle that had iron pills or something in it.
And we found an old universal auto light lamp that would have been hooked on a miner's helmet.
Student: We found some bone mainly. Like a little bone, about that size.
And we found a mandible, which is a jaw, and it has some like teeth in it.
And we found some charcoal pieces, which is about the same layer.
So I'm assuming it was either burnt, or barbecued.
Ranger: Now this is a wall, the area that they excavated. So you have a top and a base.
And the next thing you do, you draw in all of the different layers, right, the stratums.
One of the charges of the park is to preserve the archeological resources for future generations.
And the best way to do that is by having kids learn about it and be interested in it.
So then they can learn to be stewards of these resources.