Until further notice, all meetings will be held virtually.
NEXT MEETING:
When: Thursday, November 12, 2020 at 7:00 pm
Where: Google Meet (meet.google.com/jta-cmzn-tgn)
Cost: Free & Open to the Public
Desert Training Center: World War II Military Archaeology in the California Desert
Reid Farmer
Consulting Archaeologist
In 2008 – 2010 cultural resource investigations for a solar energy project in Riverside County, California resulted in the discovery of numerous artifact remains related to military training activities that took place there from 1942 – 1944. This area was part of the Desert Training Center (DTC) established by the Army early in World War II. It was used for training company to division size units in field methods and tactics using actual field exercises in often arduous conditions. Documentary evidence indicates that this project area was used for training in small unit tactics. An analysis of the nature of the artifacts recovered seems to confirm this type of use of this area of the DTC during the war.
Reid Farmer has been working in archaeology since he volunteered on excavations as a high school student in Memphis, Tennessee. He has a BA (Anthropology) from Tulane University, an MA (Anthropology) from University of Colorado-Boulder, and an MBA (Finance) from Regis University.
He has nearly 40 years of experience as an archaeologist working in cultural resource management, program management, and contract administration. He has conducted cultural resources studies in support of compliance projects in Colorado, California and 15 other states. He has held Cultural Resource Use Permits as a principal investigator in seven western states.
He has managed a wide variety of projects ranging from literature and records reviews to complex, large-scale inventories and data recovery efforts. In his later career he managed research and compliance efforts on large infrastructure projects such as transmission lines and pipelines, wind farms, large solar energy facilities and conventional power plants.
Mr. Farmer has retired from consulting, but is currently working as an affiliate professor at Metropolitan State University Denver in the Sociology & Anthropology Department.
RECENT LECTURES:
July 2020: Carlton Shield Chief Gover: Dating Apps in Archaeology
June 2020: Amelia Brackett, Chance Nelson: The Boulder Apple Tree Project
May 2020: Christian Driver: The History of Settlers Park
February 2020: Dr. Jason LaBelle: Of Hearth and Home: Investigating the Fossil Creek Site, an Early Ceramic Era Campsite in Larimer County, Colorado
January 2020: Laura Vernon & Jenna Wheaton: Gender, Social Networks, and Labor Disputes: Household Archaeology at the Industrial Mine Camp
November 2019: Kaitlyn Davis: Pueblo Agricultural Adaptations to Socioeconomic Changes in New Mexico
Is there a particular speaker that you would like to see? Email the IPCAS Vice President to suggest a speaker.