Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Living Archeology Weekend in the Red River Gorge


Last Friday and Saturday, we visited the Gladie Cultural-Environmental Learning Center in the Daniel Boone National Forest to participate in the Living Archeology Weekend, which saw over 1,600 visitors over the two-day event. Since 1989, this annual event has been providing quality educational experiences for school children and the general public. Primitive technology experts, professional archaeologists and Native American tribal representatives presented and demonstrated how native and historic people lived in Red River Gorge.

The Red River Gorge was the first Hot Spot selected by the Center this year. A Leave No Trace Hot Spot is an area heavily impacted by recreational use. Through the Hot Spot program the Center aims to increase awareness on how to enjoy the outdoors responsibly and to reduce impacts on lands used by the public for recreation.

We had the opportunity to work alongside our Educational Programs Manager, Sarah Folzenlogen, throughout both days of the event. On Friday, the programs were open to only 5th grade school groups. In the photo above, 5th grade students are playing the role of "archaeologists" piecing the stories of various native peoples and wildlife together as a part of our sessions focusing on the Leave No Trace principle Leave What You Find.

On Saturday we were able to offer outreach to the general public and awareness workshops for small groups who were interested in learning more about how they can enjoy the outdoors in a responsible manner and preserve the history and heritage of the Red River Gorge.

A warm Thank You to Jessica Santangelo and all the staff whose hard work and passions enjoying the history of the Red River Gorge made this event possible.

All the best,

Jason and Agata

1 comment:

JR said...

Thank you Jason, Agata, and Sarah for spending a lovely weekend with us! We loved having you all here. You reached a lot of people and added a fabulous component to the event!