Although my most memorable finds came from excavations at the Palace
of the Governors in Santa Fe, my most memorable event/question came from
field work in Concord, Mass.  In July of 1968, I was working on the grounds
of the Buttrick Mansion just north of Old North Bridge.  The NPS had asked
us to re-excavate a site that had been excavated 3-4 years earlier, and as
we quickly learned, had been backfilled with materials obtained from another
site "down the road."  Both sites dated to the mid-eighteenth century, and
my crew and I were disgustedly bagging the misplaced artifacts for eventual
show 'n tell.  The so-called excavation, of course, drew large crowds of
people all asking questions, one of which I will never forget.
         A woman approached and asked to see the "original trees."  Not
realizing what she really wanted to know, I gave her the standard spiel of
"the grounds were landscaped at the time the mansion was built in the
19teens, etc."  The woman persisted, "where are the original trees?"  I
tried a variation of the spiel about the landscaping.  Obviously frustrated,
the woman repeated her question, while the crew stopped work entirely to
listen in.  Finally, I asked the woman what she meant by "original trees."
Turns out the woman believed there had been no trees whatsoever, of any kind
on the entire continent of North America before the British came and she
wanted to see the "original trees" they had planted!!!

Dedie Snow