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Conference Schedule

PreserveMN 2024 - Red Wing, September 18-20, 2024

2024 Keynote Address: 25 Years and Counting of Lessons in Archaeology and Preservation in Red Wing
Professor Ron Schirmer, Ph.D., Director, Archaeology Division, Museum of Anthropology, Minnesota State University, Mankato

When most people think of archaeology in Minnesota, they think of it as investigating and helping write the history and prehistory of our region’s recent and ancient peoples. Yet archaeology itself has a history, and in Red Wing it is a history of both tragic failures and stunning successes. Few other places can boast the long-term partnerships among private citizens, public institutions, and professional researchers that help make Red Wing’s archaeological resources so accessible to the public. The stories of some of these past successes and current projects provide models for the kinds of preservation and stewardship partnerships that can be applied in many communities. In this talk, Ron Schirmer will discuss progress in understanding the complex and fascinating archaeology of the Red Wing area, as well as the development of Tribal and community partnerships that have advanced a landscape of awareness of, and concern for the cultural resources that lay all around, too often out of sight, and therefore out of mind. Professor Ron Schirmer is responsible for teaching more than 12 different undergraduate and graduate courses in anthropological and archaeological data, methods, and theory at Minnesota State University, Mankato. He is also the Director of the department's museum of anthropology, which curates over one million archaeological artifacts and associated documentation. 

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