Don't Miss Jim Nobles Presenting "Sayre Then and Now" this Tuesday!

Jim Nobles, Sayre Historical Society Founder

(WAVERLY, NY) Valley residents are sure to have a wonderful night at the Susquehanna River Archaeological Center (SRAC) on Tuesday, April 2nd from 6:30 - 7:30pm as the very popular Sayre historian and author, Jim Nobles presents, “Then” and “Now” Around Sayre – A Trip Down Memory Lane."

What was where Rock and Docs is presently located?  What building predated the Sayre American Legion Post No. 283 in Milltown?  What is now located where the trolley barn of the Waverly, Sayre & Athens Traction company was located?   Answers to these questions and more will be part of a presentation Jim Nobles will present the program.  He is a life-long resident of Sayre and founder of the Sayre Historical Society who has a longtime interest in local history and especially the history of Sayre. 

Jim will be making a visual presentation of changes that have occurred in Sayre over the many past decades.  Some of Sayre’s historic buildings have changed little during that time.  For example the Sayre Theatre is approaching its centennial but an exterior view of the theatre from 1914 would be recognized immediately today.   

Other buildings however have disappeared from the scene such as the Packer Mansion which became the Robert Packer Hospital and is now part of the Guthrie Campus.  The sites of the original Sayre schools have become playgrounds, an apartment complex, and a bank.

 Jim’s presentation will include images of those buildings followed by photos showing their locations today.  

Other images from the past to be included in the program are the former Coleman Field, Round Pond (the medical helipad is located there today), Sayre Motel, Park Hotel, Keystone Park, Lehigh Valley Railroad shops, churches, Sayre’s brick roads, and Howard Elmer Park.   This is only a partial list.  There will be many interesting and rare photos contrasting old time Sayre with Sayre of 2013.

Admission donation: Adults $6, SRAC members $4, students free and includes a free tour of the SRAC museum!

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR HANDS-ON ARCHAEOLOGY AT WIAWAKA

HANDS-ON ARCHAEOLOGY AT WIAWAKA

We are looking for volunteers to help excavate at Wiawaka Holiday House at
the southern end of Lake George, New York. We will be documenting the
early years of the Holiday House by looking at the materials the visitors
and organizers left behind. Wiawaka Holiday House was founded in 1903 to
provide affordable vacations for the working women in the factories of
Troy and Cohoes, New York.

No previous archaeological experience is necessary; you will learn
archaeological techniques hands-on at the site. All equipment will be
provided.

Please agree to volunteer for 3 or more days; 18 years of age or older only.

Accommodation and meals are available at Wiawaka Holiday House for a fee.*
There is no charge to volunteer.

What can you expect? We will be excavating at areas on-site where evidence
of Wiawaka’s early years is expected. Excavation involves the following
physical activities: crouching or kneeling on the ground for long periods
of time, occasional shoveling, lifting buckets of dirt to pour it into a
screen, shaking the screen to separate artifacts from the soil, and
filling the hole back in once all the information has been recovered. We
will spend 8 hours a day Monday through Friday excavating, taking one hour
for lunch in the middle of the day. Instruction will include
archaeological methods, note taking, and basic artifact identification and
interpretation. Rain day volunteers are more than welcome to help process
artifacts in the lab. Participants can either purchase lunch at Wiawaka*
or pack a lunch to eat on-site. There is no smoking permitted anywhere on
Wiawaka property.

Excavation Dates:
June 3 through June 28, 2013 and July 15 through July 26, 2013

Megan Springate, excavation director, is a PhD student at the University
of Maryland.

For information and to sign up for this unique opportunity, contact Megan
Springate at mes@umd.edu or 732-768-2985

* Volunteers are welcome to stay overnight at Wiawaka for $75 per night
prior to June 19. Meals are available only after June 19th. After June
19th, the room rate is $110 weekdays and $125 weekends, including meals.
Volunteers who wish to purchase meals onsite after June 19th may do so: $8
for breakfast, $12 for lunch, $16 for dinner.

“Then” and “Now” Around Sayre – A Trip Down Memory Lane

Jim Nobles, Sayre Historical Society Founder

(WAVERLY, NY) Valley residents are sure to have a wonderful night at the Susquehanna River Archaeological Center (SRAC) on Tuesday, April 2nd from 6:30 - 7:30pm as the very popular Sayre historian and author, Jim Nobles presents, “Then” and “Now” Around Sayre – A Trip Down Memory Lane."

What was where Rock and Docs is presently located?  What building predated the Sayre American Legion Post No. 283 in Milltown?  What is now located where the trolley barn of the Waverly, Sayre & Athens Traction company was located?   Answers to these questions and more will be part of a presentation Jim Nobles will present the program.  He is a life-long resident of Sayre and founder of the Sayre Historical Society who has a longtime interest in local history and especially the history of Sayre. 

Jim will be making a visual presentation of changes that have occurred in Sayre over the many past decades.  Some of Sayre’s historic buildings have changed little during that time.  For example the Sayre Theatre is approaching its centennial but an exterior view of the theatre from 1914 would be recognized immediately today.   

Other buildings however have disappeared from the scene such as the Packer Mansion which became the Robert Packer Hospital and is now part of the Guthrie Campus.  The sites of the original Sayre schools have become playgrounds, an apartment complex, and a bank.

 Jim’s presentation will include images of those buildings followed by photos showing their locations today.  

Other images from the past to be included in the program are the former Coleman Field, Round Pond (the medical helipad is located there today), Sayre Motel, Park Hotel, Keystone Park, Lehigh Valley Railroad shops, churches, Sayre’s brick roads, and Howard Elmer Park.   This is only a partial list.  There will be many interesting and rare photos contrasting old time Sayre with Sayre of 2013.

Admission donation: Adults $6, SRAC members $4, students free and includes a free tour of the SRAC museum!

Get your Fuddy Duddy Easter Candy at SRAC!

Buy great Easter chocolates, fudge and candy and support SRAC at the same time! When you buy your Fuddy Duddy candy at SRAC - you not only get great candy - you support SRAC because Fuddy Duddy's pays us small portion on every sale!

Stop in SRAC's gift shop and fill your Easter baskets this year with original candies and goodies or get the whole basket already filled by Fuddy Duddy's! Great candies, jelly belly jelly beans and delicious solid chocolate Easter bunnies and so much more all at affordable prices too!

Stop in and see for yourself Tuesdays through Friday from 1-5pm and Saturdays from 11-5pm and sample the area's BEST FUDGE for free while you are there!

SRAC Receives Unique Local Artifacts

Mark Orshaw (left) stands with SRAC's Collections Lead Donald Hunt with the ceremonial pick and turtle effigy

(WAVERLY, NY) Avid collector Mark Orshaw has fond memories of his old friend Bernie Safford who passed away several years ago. The two spent many hours looking for Native American artifacts together as they walked the local fields. In fact, when Bernie died, his wife Mary contacted Mark to give him one of Bernie’s prized artifacts to go with another that Bernie had given him years before.
As with many collectors, Mark has kept the artifacts together and displayed them over the years, but recently has come to a point in his life when he has decided to downsize his collection.  As a result, he made a call to the Susquehanna River Archaeological Center (SRAC) in Waverly, NY who had acquired the Bernie Safford collection a few years ago and has a large case dedicated to him in their museum.  Today, the ceremonial pick and the turtle effigy have been returned to the Bernie Safford collection at SRAC, where they will be on display for the public to enjoy.

SRAC’s cofounder and executive director, Deb Twigg commented,” We want to thank Mark Orshaw for donating these two very rare pieces to SRAC and reuniting them with Bernie’s collection. I am sure that the public as well as researchers will be interested in taking a look at these significant pieces.”

SRAC has a huge museum filled with local Native American artifacts found by our local collectors and is located at 345 Broad Street in Waverly, NY and is open from 1-5 pm Tuesdays through Fridays and 11am – 5pm Saturdays.  For more information visit www.SRACenter .org.

SRAC Giving Campaign 2013 is underway!

 

Please consider donating to SRAC's 2013 Giving Campaign. 

Your tax deductible donation will help to keep SRAC operating for the whole community to enjoy!

Send donations to:
SRAC Giving Campaign
345 Broad Street
Waverly, NY 14892
or click here


or donate items for our auction!

SRAC's New Website

Stay tuned for SRAC's new website that should be live by the end of the day today! It is the next generation of websites and is more easy to navigate whether you are on a PC, mobile phone or ipad and offers alot more features! Designed and developed by Teaoga Marketing - we hope that it makes for a better user experience for everyone who wants to learn more about SRAC, read our newsletters online, donate, watch our videos, become a member and attend our events! The URL will be the same at www.SRACenter.org!

Fuddy Duddy's Easter Bunnies and More at SRAC!

Stop in SRAC's gift shop and fill your Easter baskets this year with original candies and goodies or get the whole basket already filled by Fuddy Duddy's! Great candies, jelly belly jelly beans and delicious solid chocolate Easter bunnies and so much more all at affordable prices too! Stop in and see for yourself Tuesdays through Friday from 1-5pm and Saturdays from 11-5pm and sample the area's BEST FUDGE for free while you are there!

Navigational sunstone thought to be an ancient compass discovered

A rough, whitish block recovered from an Elizabethan shipwreck may be a sunstone, the fabled crystal believed by some to have helped Vikings and other medieval seafarers navigate the high seas, researchers say.

In a paper published earlier this week, a Franco-British group argued that the Alderney Crystal — a chunk of Icelandic calcite found amid a 16th century wreck at the bottom of the English Channel — worked as a kind of solar compass, allowing sailors to determine the position of the sun even when it was hidden by heavy cloud, masked by fog, or below the horizon.

To read the full article click here:
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/researchers-we-may-have-found-fabled-sunstone

Tuesday March 5th - Faces of the Past by Deb Twigg

Download and share this flier here

(WAVERLY, NY) "Faces from Our Past" will be presented at The Susquehanna River Archaeological Center (SRAC),  345 Broad Street , Waverly, NY  from 6:30 - 7:30pm on Tuesday, March 5th . Local historian and Executive Director of SRAC, Deb Twigg will be presenting new research concerning  the origin of Pennsylvania’s Susquehannock culture based on her research that is currently being published in the national magazine, Ancient American.

Look into sculpted pottery faces created by ancient hands nearly 600 years ago and wonder: Were the people buried in the Athens site referred to by archaeologists as the Murray Garden actually a former chief and his followers that had fled from their overthrown “kingdom” almost three thousand miles away? Did the Susquehannock culture develop from the mingling of this collapsed Mississippian culture and our local prehistoric peoples? Join us as the author of the recent SRAC Journal and Ancient American article on this topic, shares the findings that convinced professionals that this information warrants further inquiry into our locality and the role it played in the origin of the Susquehannock people.

A general admission donation of $6 for adults and $4 for SRAC members is requested.  Free admission to the SRAC exhibit hall is included in this donation.  (Free admission for all students every day at SRAC.)For more information, visit www.SRACenter.org, email info@SRAcenter.org, or call the Center at 607-565-7960.

Research at Mines Unearths New Dinosaur Species Release

South Dakota School of Mines & Technology Clint Boyd, Ph.D., of the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, points to a crocodyliform tooth embedded in the femur of a young dinosaur.

Date Wednesday, February 27, 2013 
First fossil evidence shows small crocs fed on baby dinosaurs RAPID CITY, S.D. (Feb. 27, 2013) – A South Dakota School of Mines & Technology assistant professor and his team have discovered a new species of herbivorous dinosaur and today published the first fossil evidence of prehistoric crocodyliforms feeding on small dinosaurs. Research by Clint Boyd, Ph.D., provides the first definitive evidence that plant-eating baby ornithopod dinosaurs were a food of choice for the crocodyliform, a now extinct relative of the crocodile family.

While conducting their research, the team also discovered that this dinosaur prey was a previously unrecognized species of a small ornithopod dinosaur, which has yet to be named. The evidence found in what is now known as the Grand Staircase Escalante-National Monument in southern Utah dates back to the late Cretaceous period, toward the end of the age of dinosaurs, and was published today in the academic journal PLOS ONE (Public Library of Science ONE). The complete research findings of Boyd and Stephanie K. Drumheller, of the University of Iowa and the University of Tennessee, and Terry A. Gates, of North Carolina State University and the Natural History Museum of Utah, can be accessed at http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0057605. A large number of mostly tiny bits of dinosaur bones were recovered in groups at four locations within the Utah park – which paleontologists and geologists know as the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian) Kaiparowits Formation – leading paleontologists to believe that crocodyliforms had fed on baby dinosaurs 1-2 meters in total length. Evidence shows bite marks on bone joints, as well as breakthrough proof of a crocodyliform tooth still embedded in a dinosaur femur.

The findings are significant because historically dinosaurs have been depicted as the dominant species. “The traditional ideas you see in popular literature are that when little baby dinosaurs are either coming out of a nesting grounds or out somewhere on their own, they are normally having to worry about the theropod dinosaurs, the things like raptors or, on bigger scales, the T. rex. So this kind of adds a new dimension,” Boyd said. “You had your dominant riverine carnivores, the crocodyliforms, attacking these herbivores as well, so they kind of had it coming from all sides." Based on teeth marks left on bones and the large amounts of fragments left behind, it is believed the crocodyliforms were also diminutive in size, perhaps no more than 2 meters long. A larger species of crocodyliform would have been more likely to gulp down its prey without leaving behind traces of “busted up” bone fragments. Until now, paleontologists had direct evidence only of “very large crocodyliforms” interacting with “very large dinosaurs.” “It’s not often that you get events from the fossil record that are action-related,” Boyd explained. “While you generally assume there was probably a lot more interaction going on, we didn’t have any of that preserved in the fossil record yet. This is the first time that we have definitive evidence that you had this kind of partitioning, of your smaller crocodyliforms attacking the smaller herbivorous dinosaurs,” he said, adding that this is only the second published instance of a crocodyliform tooth embedded in any prey animal in the fossil record. “A lot of times you find material in close association or you can find some feeding marks or traces on the outside of the bone and you can hypothesize that maybe it was a certain animal doing this, but this was only the second time we have really good definitive evidence of a crocodyliform feeding on a prey animal and in this case an ornithischian dinosaur,” Boyd said.

The high concentrations of tiny dinosaur bones led researchers to conclude a type of selection occurred, that crocodyliforms were preferentially feeding on these miniature dinosaurs. “Maybe it was closer to a nesting ground where baby dinosaurs would have been more abundant, and so the smaller crocodyliforms were hanging out there getting a lunch,” Boyd added. “When we started looking at all the other bones, we starting finding marks that are known to be diagnostic for crocodyliform feeding traces, so all that evidence coming together suddenly started to make sense as to why we were not finding good complete specimens of these little ornithischian dinosaurs,” Boyd explained. “Most of the bites marks are concentrated around the joints, which is where the crocodyliform would tend to bite, and then, when they do their pulling or the death roll that they tend to do, the ends of the bones tend to snap off more often than not in those actions. That’s why we were finding these fragmentary bones.” In the process of their research, the team discovered through diagnostic cranial material that these baby prey are a new, as yet-to-be-named dinosaur species. Details on this new species will soon be published in another paper.

MEDIA CONTACT Fran LeFort Media relations manager (605) 394-6082 Fran.LeFort@sdsmt.edu

Vestal Museum Presents: Mighty Susquehanna: Friend and Foe

Dai Newman of the Vestal Museum contacted me a while ago about helping her with the part of the exhibit that would deal with the Native Americans in the Vestal area and I put her in contact with SRAC's Dan Caister and Don Straub who are members of the TriCities chapter of NY Archaeology and they are putting in alot of local archaeology into the exhibit for her! If you get a chance - take the time to stop up and see their exhibit!

The Vestal Museum and Vestal Historical Society Present: The Mighty Susquehanna: Friend and Foe

Come check out the Vestal Museum's latest exhibit! See the many ways the river has shaped the history of our town. Not only does the Susquehanna mark our official northern border, it has driven exploration, settlement and development of the area.  It offered early Vestalites a source of food, travel and recreation. The tributary creeks that run into the mighty river were our original power source – turning the mill wheels that ground the grain and milled the lumber that fueled our settlers and built their homes.  Even today, as we navigate through modern needs such as electrical power, sewage treatment and how to build and grow in an ever-changing floodplain the river continues to affect our daily lives.

The Vestal Museum Open House
Sunday, March 10, 1-3 pm
Light Refreshments will be served
Event is FREE and open to the public.

The exhibit will be open to the public March 6 through May 25
Wednesday – Saturday 10-3