Howdy John,
thanks for the note.  No need to remind me of our meeting at TAG, I
remember from years past and our discussions on the net as well.   Work in
New Jersey is going along fine.  My position here is largely
administrative, but I have partial control over our field school, total
control over our workshop program, and enough teaching to keep me happy.
As for field work - I don't get enough of it (but who ever does?).  Setting
up field projects here is no less difficult than anywhere else in the US.
It is best undertaken by lawyers and other criminals, but we do our best.
All in all, I am happy with what I've got going on.
As for the field school...
The main site, Feltville, is a trip.  The historic part of its story begins
in pre-revolutionary times, when it was the property of a prominent
politician who later died during the revolution and who is buried on the
property, in a grave which has not yet been located.  There is a bit of
mythology as to the location of the grave - supported by an historical
marker - but no indication of its actual existence.  Feltville itself was
founded as a late 18th early 19th century industrial utopian community by
David Felt - a cultish industrialist.  He populated the community with
eastern European laborers, built a mill and a lot of labor housing, and
struggled economically for forty years.  The community tried producing a
variety of different products, and even experimented with growing tobacco
for a while.  After Felt passed on, Feltville was purchased and
re-developed as Glenside - a resort community for NYC/Newark UMCs.  After
Glenside fell apart (late 19th C), the area was in dispute (none of the
surrounding town really wanted to be responsible for it), and it became
sort of a backwater.  A fairly complex set of historical myths surround
Feltville - partly because of the fact that it was not entirely
incorporated until the early part of this century.  A 'hermit' lived in one
of the laborer's cottages until the 1930s and several buildings and
locations detailed in the rather imaginative maps relating to the Feltville
phase remain unlocated, despite our preliminary work in 1996.  And yet,
some of the Glenside cottages are inhabited today.  We envision its
potential as an industrial archaeology project - focusing on utopianism,
labor, ethnicity and economy.  Pretty neat project.
As for my own half of the field school (we always do one historic and one
Native American site), it has turned out that I will not be working, as
intended, on a Contact Period site this year.  I have two options, a pretty
neat Woodland period habitation site on the Passaic which I have never seen
and know very little about, or, possibly, a (probably fictive) possibly
historic period Native American site within the Feltville property.  We are
currently investigating both avenues and expect to have a decision within a
few weeks (or, perhaps we will be calling Dr. Kevorkian).
How are things way out there?
Peace,
Matt
 
At 01:49 PM 2/17/98 -0600, you wrote:
>Hey Matt, howdy.  Having tromped through Jersey for many years I was
>wondering where you will be holding the field school.  Also, how is the
>owrk out there these days?  My wife is very interesting in returning to her
>"homeland" and we might end up moving out there sometime mid to late 1999.
>
>Congratulations on the Montclair job.
>
>john staeck (we met at TAG).
>
>
>john
>
>
>John P. Staeck          There are many here among us,
>Anthropology Program      who feel that life is but a joke,
>Luther College          but you and I have been through that
>Decorah, IA  52101        and know that this is not our fate.
>[log in to unmask]        R. Zimmerman
>
Matthew S. Tomaso, M. A., Coordinator,
Center for Archaeological Studies
Montclair State University, Upper Montclair, NJ.  USA.
 
http://www.chss.montclair.edu/archaeology/cas.htm
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