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Meet the Regional Director — Nelson Marek

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Nelson Marek     E-mail: region06@txarch.org

For those who do not know me, my name is Nelson Marek.  I have met many of you at the past 5 TAS Field Schools, two STAA Field Schools, several TAS Annual Meetings, etc.  I am a retired engineer and now enjoying my new profession, archeology.  I have a son who is vice-president for a professional baseball team in New Jersey and a daughter who is a flight attendant with Delta (yes, I do get to fly free).  I am divorced — I might add happily — for many, many years.  Aside from archeology, I enjoy oil painting, fishing and an involvement with the Lions Club, Habitat for Humanity, volunteer work at the hospital, and the Museum of the Coastal Bend in Victoria.  These are just a few of my activities.  At present, I am spending 2 days a week on an interesting Paleo/Early Archaic dig site in Victoria County.

My table is full and my mind is in overdrive.

In my early teens, the 1950s, my cousins and my uncle said that there was a Fort St. Louis on Garcitas Creek in Victoria County.  This did not mean a lot to me as I do not recall learning anything in school about the Fort or LaSalle.  Living in Calhoun County near Garcitas Creek, this was virtually in my backyard.  Their information, no doubt, resulted from rumors about the Fort's location from the noted historian H. E. Bolton from the University of Texas.  Based upon his research of Spanish archives and maps, he made a trip to the Garcitas area in Victoria County in the early 1900s and proclaimed the site as that of Fort St. Louis. In the early 1950s, Glen Evans from the University of Texas Memorial Museum, did some excavating and trenching on the site of the Fort, finding artifacts and a number of ceramics which were conclusively confirmed to be French and Spanish by the noted archeologist and authority on ceramics, Dr. Kathleen Gilmore.

The preceding paragraph is background information leading to my interest and involvement in archeology.  After my graduation from the University of Texas with a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering, I would occasionally reflect on how interesting the archeological profession would be.  Going to faraway, remote places, digging for artifacts and studying past civilizations sounded adventuresome and romantic.

In April 1999, I retired from the engineering profession and moved from Houston back to Port Lavaca — where I was born — to the farm where I grew up.  At the time, LaSalles' ship La Belle had been discovered and the Texas Historical Commission had begun the task of recovering the ship.  Shortly after that, eight iron cannons were found on the west bank of Garcitas Creek in Victoria county, where Evans had recovered the French and Spanish ceramics.  This conclusively confirmed the site of LaSalle's Fort St. Louis.  The THC, by agreement with the land owners, began excavations on the site.  The Victoria Advocate was publicizing the archeological work at the site, and in the public laboratory in Victoria.  I visited the laboratory and began working there.  Eventually, I also worked several days a week at the site.  This was the doorway to my earlier interest in archeology. Timing is everything. If I had not moved from Houston to Port Lavaca when I did, this opportunity would never have come about.

During my volunteer work — for over 2 years — on the Fort Saint Louis project, I gained invaluable knowledge from professional archeologists.  I became acquainted with TAS and STAA and joined both of them.  Since joining TAS, I have attended the past 4 Field Schools and one with STAA.

During my association with the professional archeologists on the Fort St. Louis project, I was recommended and approved as a THC Steward for Calhoun county and as a result of acquaintances made during the Field Schools, I was asked to be the TAS Regional Director for Region 6.

My interest in archeology continues to grow as I learn more about excavation techniques, scientific study of artifacts and learning about past cultures.  When I was in the engineering profession I had a feeling that archeology would be interesting.  That feeling has become a reality.  Little did I know that when my cousins and uncle, 50 years ago, talked about Fort St. Louis on Garcitas Creek in Victoria County that it would eventually be the doorway leading me into the exciting and rewarding field of archeology.  Stranger than fiction?

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