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Region 10

Meet the Regional Director — Claude Hudspeth

Regional News — January 2008

Region 10 finished the year with the Concho Valley Archeological Society (CVAS) having its annual Christmas party on the 13th of December with over 100 attendees.  Outdoor activities have been limited due to unusually cold weather the balance of December.

The Midland Archeological Society (MAS) will journey to Floydada, Texas, and the Floyd County Museum to view the Coronado artifacts from a site in White River Canyon.  MAS will be hosting the Southwest Federation Annual Meeting on April 5th. Contact stick711@sbeglobal.net for more information.

The CVAS has arranged with the owner of Grierson Spring (former outpost of Ft. Concho and stage stop on upper road to El Paso) for a field trip there on the 26th of January.  CVAS has invited the Midland and Iraan Archeological Societies to join them.  Grierson Spring, located some 15 miles southwest of Big Lake, has both historic and prehistoric sites.

After the visit to Grierson Spring, the group will make a 45-minute drive to Iraan for the IAS's annual dinner and a presentation by Dr. Grant Hall on Rattlesnake Shelter located near Langtry.

- Claude Hudspeth

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Claude Hudspeth   E-mail: region10@txarch.org

I was born in San Angelo but raised on a ranch 30 miles south of Ozona.  At school age, we moved to Del Rio.  At age nine, we relocated to San Angelo.  I went to high school at Texas Military Institute in San Antonio and then attended two years of college, one at the University of Miami, Florida and the other at the University of Texas at Austin.  I was drafted into the U. S. Army, and this event turned out to be the end of my formal education.  While stationed in Korea, I became interested in aviation, and upon my discharge from the Army, began studies and training to become an airline pilot.  After several years of working my way up the ladder, I joined Pan American World Airways in January, 1966, which at the time was the world's foremost airline.  I was employed with Pan American for twenty-six years until the company ceased operation in December, 1991.  I have flown all the largest airliners, including the Boeing 747s for fifteen years, all over the world.  There is not a major country or city I haven't been to.  Besides being licensed to fly as captain on six different types of airliners, I was also licensed as a Flight Engineer and a Flight Navigator.  At various times, I was based in San Francisco, New York and Berlin, Germany.

Because airline pilots have a great amount of time free due to the nature of the occupation and flight time limitations, I established my own wine-grape vineyards in California.  After becoming unemployed in 1991, I continued to operate the vineyards and making a living from them until 1997, when I sold them and moved to San Angelo.

I believe I have been at least an avocational historian for most of my life.  Upon relocating to San Angelo, I joined the Concho Valley Archeological Society, which at the time also included a membership in the Texas Archeological Society.  I play golf (handicap 8) and tennis when my archeological and historical pursuits permit.  I am a member of the Texas Historical Commission's Stewardship Network, and I serve on the Board of Directors for the Crockett County Historical Commission and Museum.  I met my beautiful wife Ginger while she was a stewardess for Pan American.  We have been married for 36 years.

From Current Archeology in Texas, Vol. 6, No.1

"Claude Hudspeth joined the Texas Archeological Stewardship Network (TASN) this year and has quickly identified himself as a tireless crusader for preservation.  He is very active as a Regional Director for TAS and has assisted the TAS in putting on Archeology 101 training near San Angelo.  He was camp director at last summer's TAS Field School and has agreed to continue in this exhausting position at the 2004 field school near Menard.  He co-presented a paper on the Chihuahuan Road in Mexico at the Conference on Big Bend Studies at Sul Ross State University in November.  He averaged one presentation per month, talking to more than 875 attendees about Texas history and prehistory.  Hudspeth recorded three new sites, monitored eight, and investigated another while assisting four private landowners and others, as well as state agencies.  He assisted cultural resource firms in his area by sharing his expert knowledge of the region's cultural history.  In addition to all this, Hudspeth serves on the board of directors of the Crockett County Historical Commission and Museum."

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