Forrest M. Mims III

This issue of The Citizen Scientist has a very special pair of feature articles by avocational archaeologist David Wasion and a news story about avocational paleoichnologist Ray Stanford. Both Wasion and Stanford have made significant scientific discoveries that were missed by their professional counterparts. Their discoveries were based on their skill, experience, perseverance and other scientific qualifications that cannot be taught in a classroom or guaranteed by a diploma.

David Wasion's articles are the first he has written about the discovery of a lifetime, a find for which he has not always been credited. The news story about Ray Stanford is very different, for he is the lead author of a scientific paper about his discovery. Both professional and citizen scientists should become aware of what has happened to David Wasion, for the same thing might happen to them one day.

Those of us involved in amateur, avocational and citizen science have heard about instances in which a scientist without conventional academic credentials has been slighted. A classic case occurred 15 years ago when Jerry MacDonald's discovery of a Jurassic animal trackway was belittled by a professional paleontologist at a major museum in New Mexico. MacDonald, who was then studying for a doctorate in sociology, responded by loading slabs of rock trackways into the bed of his pickup and driving them to the Carnegie and Smithsonian Institutions. Scientists at these prestigious museums validated MacDonald's impressive discovery.

David Wasion's case is very different. As described in his own words in this issue of The Citizen Scientist, Wasion became the first archaeologist to push back the arrival of people in North America prior to Clovis man when he discovered cut marks on a mammoth bone in the basement of a Wisconsin museum. Wasion immediately recognized the significance of the cut marks, and promptly informed two professional arch- aeologists. While both archaeologists have worked with Wasion and have corroborated his account of the discovery, several major publications that have published stories about Wasion's find have left out his name. An interactive web site developed by the Wisconsin Historical Society even seems to credit Wasion's discovery to another archaeologist.

Consider a recent news story in the journal Science, arguably the world's leading science magazine. Science has no editorial policy against publishing the work of citizen scientists. Indeed, the editors once solicited a guest column on amateur science (F. M. Mims III, Amateur Science--Strong Tradition, Bright Future, Science 284, 55-56, 1999). Unfortunately, this openness to citizen science is apparently unknown to at least some of the news editors at Science, who slighted David Wasion's monumental discovery in a recent news story by referring to him only as an unnamed "amateur archaeologist" (Terrence Falk, Wisconsin dig seeks to confirm pre-Clovis Americans, Science 305, 590, 2004). After a news article in The Citizen Scientist covered this issue (Credit Where Credit is Due, 29 October 2004), Terrence Falk, the author of the Science piece, wrote to inform us that he had included David Wasion's name in his article, and that the editors at Science had removed it. Falk, who is a professional writer, told me that Wasion's name was also cut from an article he wrote for Milwaukee Magazine (Bones to Pick, April 2004). He generously agreed to write an article for The Citizen Scientist in which he gave full credit to David Wasion for his discovery (The Momentous Discovery of Avocational Archaeologist David Wasion, 7 January 2005).

While readers of The Citizen Scientist now know that David Wasion is the anonymous "amateur scientist" referred to by Science, the readers of Science and Milwaukee Magazine do not. The same can be said about readers of several other articles about Wasion's discovery, including a news story that refers to him in The Christian Science Monitor (Peter N. Spotts, Signs of an Earlier America, p. 15, 23 September 2004). Unfortunately, as in Science, he is again described only as an unnamed "amateur scientist."

There are other examples of David Wasion's name being left out of articles about his discovery, which helps explain why he is almost invisible on the web. While Wasion's name can be found on a few web sites, he is essentially unknown to major web search engines. Go to www.google.com and enter "'David Wasion' mammoth." You'll get only two hits, both to The Citizen Scientist.

While these news accounts slight Wasion by omission, other public versions of the story give credit for his discovery to others. One of the most curious examples of this is "Welcome to the Mammoth Mystery," an interactive web site developed by the Wisconsin Historical Society. While this site is very nicely done (Figs. 2-5), it is seriously flawed by errors that the typical viewer will never know about.

For example, as shown by the panel in Fig. 3, the site seems to credit museum archaeologist Dan Joyce with the discovery made by David Wasion. Yet an obscure credit page on the site (see panel in Fig. 4) states, "Dave Wasion-arch- aeologist...discoverer of cut marks on bones that led to sites." Joyce himself recently wrote to me, "By the way, thank you for recognizing Dave Wasion in this work." The mammoth bone sketches on the site were most likely based on Wasion's illustrations, but the artist is not acknowledged.

The panel shown in Fig. 5 states, "Joyce...invited fellow archaeologist, David Overstreet to help excavate." This is not the way Dr. Overstreet recalls what happened. According to Overstreet, "The reality is that I wrote a grant proposal and was funded by the National Park Service through the Wisconsin Historical Society. On that proposal, which was funded, I was listed as the Principal Investigator while Joyce was listed as a 'Project Manager' for the Kenosha Public Museum."

These and other discrepancies at the "Welcome to the Mammoth Mystery" site might seem minor to some, but magazines, historical societies and museums have a responsibility to provide accurate accounts of history. That's why every article in The Citizen Scientist is carefully fact checked prior to publication. For example, should we be notified about any errors in this editorial or in David Wasion's two articles in this issue, it will be our responsibility to correct them.

David Wasion's once-in-a-lifetime discovery deserve to be accurately reported, whether in the prestigious journal Science, The Christian Science Monitor or an historical society web site. Leaving out Wasion's name is as wrong as giving credit for his discovery to another.

Dr. David Overstreet, the first person David Wasion called after he found the cut marks on the mammoth bone in the museum basement, is a prominent archaeologist who has just retired from Marquette University. Because he has retained David Wasion's services as an illustrator and archaeologist on various research projects, the last word on the David Wasion matter is best left to Dr. Overstreet:

"David's account is essentially correct. He was working under my direction at the time [of the discovery] as I recall, and I do recall our telephone conversation and his excitement about the cut marks...I'm pleased to see Dave getting some independent recognition for his role in the unfolding story and believe he is deserving of such accolades."