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Region 9

Meet the Regional Director — May and Jim Schmidt

Regional News — January 2008

Field work continues regularly at the Joyful Horse Site under the able direction of Nick Morgan.

May and Jim Schmidt have been documenting a site just south of downtown Austin and plan to do some testing in January (weather permitting).  They also will be investigating a historic site in Hays County.

May attended the opening of the Travis County East Metro Park with artifacts from that park loaned by County Parks staff and information about the Texas Archeological Society and the Travis County Archeological Society.

The Travis County Archeological Society resumes regular meetings in January with a talk about the Spanish Flu Epidemic in Travis County.

The Llano Uplift Archaeology Society recently investigated sites on a tributary creek on the Pedernales River near Fredericksburg, including testing backdirt from looter’s pits.  The Society resumes regular meetings in February.

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May and Jim Schmidt     E-mail: at region09@txarch.org

May and Jim Schmidt have been actively involved in Texas archeology for more than thirty years.  May's family first participated in the 1962 TAS Field School when family friend E. Mott Davis invited the family to Comal County to camp and dig.  Jim came along to the Guadalupe Mountains Field School after he and May returned from Peace Corps service in El Salvador. From the mid-1970s, Field School has been their family vacation involving their two children, Erna Martin and Christian Schmidt.  They are looking forward to a fourth generation of participation with their granddaughter, McKenna Martin.

Both are Texans by birth: May from Austin, Jim from Boerne.  They met as students at UT Austin.  Jim graduated from Huston-Tillotson College (BA in Sociology), Austin Community College (L.V.N. and R.N.) and returned to UT Austin after retiring as a nurse at the Austin State Hospital to complete a B.A. in Anthropological Archeology.  May graduated from U.T. Austin (B.A. in History and Economics, M.A. in Latin American Studies, Masters in Library Science) and retired from the Austin Public Library.  Both continue to work part-time: Jim at the French Legation and Wells Branch, May at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory (Librarian).  Both are Archeological Stewards with the Texas Historical Commission.

In addition to TAS, they are members of the Travis County Archeological Society, the Southern Texas Archaeological Association and the Llano Uplift Archeological Society.  Current archeological projects include excavation at the Bowmer Site and San Felipe de Austin, lab work at the Texas Historical Commission (rebagging the Red River Field School) and screening materials from Military Plaza in San Antonio.

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