7 January 2005

The Momentous Discovery of Avocational Archaeologist David Wasion

Terrence Falk

Editors Note. A discovery by avocational archaeologist David Wasion is arguably among the most important findings about the presence of early people in North America. A news article in The Citizen Scientist entitled " Credit Where Credit is Due ” (29 October 2004) described how Mr. Wasion's name was left out of a news article about the discovery in the prestigious journal Science. The article was written by Terrence Falk, a professional writer who has advised TCS that he included Mr. Wasion's name in his article, but the editors of Science deleted it. TCS is grateful to Mr. Falk for providing us with this article that provides important details about the momentous discovery by avocational archaeologist David Wasion.

In the search of ancient man in the Americas, no find is more important than the one made by David Wasion in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Wasion was a construction worker whose avocation is field archaeology. In 1990, he was working for the Kenosha Public Museum when he mentioned some possibilities to staff archaeologist, Dan Joyce. The nearby Kenosha County Historical Museum was in the process of major staff changes and was conducting a full inventory of its holdings. Wasion had heard stories of mammoth bones being found at various sites around Kenosha going back to the 1920s, but no one knew what had happened to the bones.

Wasion poured over old newspaper clippings and documents at the Historical Museum, but the inventory showed no such mammoth bones. Finally he got a phone call from a staff member: “We've just come across a big wooden box, a crate, in the basement, and it has some bone in it. Do you want to go take a look?"

In the dusty basement, Wasion lifted the top of the crate to see bones from known Kenosha sites: Mud Lake, Fenske, and Schaefer. But Wasion saw something he never expected: obvious cut marks that had to be made by human hands.

Wasion immediately called Professor David Overstreet at Marquette University in Milwaukee.

“Dave, you've got to get down here, because I just found something wonderful.”

Overstreet told Wasion to contact Joyce, and the following day all three of them examined the bones. These marks were clearly human but were not created by the machines that dug up the bones. These were butchering marks made by ancient man. Radiocarbon dating would later reveal that some bones were over 13,000 years old, at least two thousand years older that the supposed Bering Straits crossing and Clovis man.

They had a sketch map from the Schaefer site and decided that is where they would make their first attempt at finding the rest of a mammoth. Overstreet was insistent that Wasion should be part of the dig. After all, Wasion was the one who had discovered the cut marks on the bones.

But Overstreet also knew Wasion's skills. He had employed Wasion several times over the years at various field sites for his company, Great Lakes Archaeology. Wasion had earned his stripes as a young man in southern Illinois, joining an amateur archaeology club that sometimes worked with Northwestern University at various digs. After coming to Wisconsin, Wasion was often the site artist for Overstreet. He even trained others in field techniques, including college students majoring in archaeology.

But when it came to hiring Wasion under a government grant, Wasion lacked the appropriate degree. Joyce and Wasion sat down and wrote up Wasion's resume, including the various publications in which Wasion's drawings and work appeared. Finally he received a title acceptable for the grant: “Avocational Archaeologist recognized by the state of Wisconsin.”

They began their work in the summer of 1992. In three days they hit bone. The discovery of the Schaefer mammoth was monumental. The bones were stacked, something no animal would do, and stone tools were found under the pelvis, tools that could not have migrated from areas above. While other sites claim they may be older than the Kenosha sites, all have problems with dating. Here were cut marks directly on the bone, and material from directly inside the bone could be carbon dated with no threat of contamination.

While the dig continued at Schaefer, the farmer from across the street, John Hebior, came over and stated, “Here, this is from my field,” and handed the team more mammoth bones.

In the summer of 1994, Overstreet and Wasion unearthed the Hebior mammoth, considered to be one of the most complete wooly mammoth skeletons ever found in the Americas. Over 95% of the bones were retrieved. Castings were made of the bones to make replicas of the skeleton. If your local museum had placed on display a mammoth skeleton within the last ten years, chances are it was made from the castings of the Hebior mammoth.

So why doesn't David Wasion get the credit he deserves? In August 2004, I wrote an article for Milwaukee Magazine
(http://www.milwaukeemagazine.com/042004/bones.html) concerning the discovery of the Kenosha mammoths. I included David Wasion's name, although at the time I did not realize how important he was to the project. But the editor came back with “too many names” and cut Wasion's name from the article.

Last summer, internationally known archaeologist Michael Waters from Texas A & M University came to Kenosha in search of the oldest known mammoth at the Mud Lake site. Once again, I wrote an article, this time for the prestigious journal Science (Archaeology: Wisconsin Dig Seeks to Confirm Pre-Clovis Americans,September issue of Science 305, 590 (2004),
(http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/305/5684/590a). And once again I included the names of Overstreet, Joyce and Wasion in the article. And once again an editor came back with “too many names.” All three names were cut from the final draft.

As I stood in the marshes of Mud Lake with Michael Waters, I showed him what was to be the final draft of the article.

Waters responded with, “Where are the names of Overstreet, Joyce, and Wasion? These guys were important.”

Waters understood that without their previous work, he would not be at Mud Lake looking for this historic find.

Journalists and editors are not people who want to slight anyone. But sometime in telling a story, we have trouble listing a string of credits like one might find at the end of a good movie – who did the costumes, special effects, and so on. Ultimately names are dropped. Often the first one cut is the one who lacks the advanced degree. But one name that should not be dropped in search for ancient Americans is David Wasion.