Nevada putting on WWII site stewardship workshop

The State Historic Preservation Office, Nevada Archaeological Site Stewardship Program is sponsoring a workshop May 4 from 9am to noon at the Churchill County Museum in Fallon.

That program will highlight some of Nevada’s WWII resources from an archaeological perspective. Jeffrey Wedding from Nevada Desert Research Institute will discuss the types of resources remaining, how to identify them, techniques on recording them and things to consider when determining their significance in light of the criteria for National Register of Historic Places eligibility.

Millions of men and women joined the armed forces during World War II, moving to huge, newly constructed and rapidly expanded military bases for training. American industry geared up to build those training facilities and provided almost two-thirds of all the Allied military equipment produced during the war including 297,000 aircraft, 193,000 artillery pieces, 86,000 tanks and 2 million army trucks. In four years, American industrial production, already the world’s largest, doubled in size. The output of the machine-tools to make weapons tripled in three years.

The workshop will also present information about Nevada’s Site Stewardship Program. Increased visitation to public lands has overwhelmed archaeologists and law enforcement officers. The Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Reclamation, Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Park Service have joined with the Nevada State Historic Preservation Office to create a statewide volunteer site stewardship program.

The state office trains site stewards to become vital “eyes and ears” for public land management agencies.

Site stewards are crucial to the preservation of the archaeological, historic, and paleontological resources that are abundant throughout the state. Adults who enjoy being outdoors, like to hike, are willing to collaborate with state and federal agencies and have a love for the past may want to consider attending this workshop.

For more info, contact Rayette Martin at (702) 486.5011 or ramartin@shpo.nv.gov.