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 Beginning in 1989, the US Forest Service began a nation-wide program of volunteer projects in history, archaeology, and cultural resources management. Called the Passport In Time, or PIT program, it was modeled on one that operated briefly in Canada. The PIT program expanded from the Great Lakes states, so that after 10 years, there are over 7,000 volunteers working under professional direction in more than 200 projects a year on most national forests. This enthusiastic public participation has impressed forest service managers at all levels.  The
PIT volunteers are making history public across the country. They do restoration
of historic houses, settler cabins, fire lookouts, trails, cemeteries, historic
mills and battlefields, library and archival research, oral history. They
also excavate historic and prehistoric sites, record ancient petroglyphs,
and teach the coming generations. The Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forests in Georgia joined the Passport In Time program in 1990, with a small prehistoric excavation that helped define a 1,000 AD middle Georgia Indian culture, the Vining Phase. For several years we actively recruited schoolteachers, and the universities gave them certification credit. Many returned often for the fun of it, and some never bothered with credit--they just liked to dig! One of the fascinating aspects of this volunteer effort was the "interagency" and professional appeal. Archaeologists and others came from the State Historic Preservation Office, and a historic archaeologist came from the Army at Fort Bragg, NC. Georgia State Parks employees came, as did National Park Service rangers, and archaeologists from various contracting companies in Georgia. University of Georgia Archaeology, Geology, and Environmental Design faculty and student majors, and many schoolteachers joined us regularly. Most volunteers were amateurs, with strong interests in archaeology and history. The sheer numbers of participant hours is staggering. During the four seasons, we had over 100 different individuals (many coming several times) working on the site, who gave in excess of 6,000 hours to the project. They mostly came from Georgia, but also from ten other states, some as far away as New York, New Jersey, Missouri, and Nebraska. The participants' ages range from 17 to 79, and they are about evenly divided, males and females. We plan soon to involve local Girl Scouts in Foxfire-type interviews with community elders, thus widening the age range overall.  |
