Society Contact Information

Regional Information

Region 9

Meet the Regional Director — May and Jim Schmidt

Regional News — April 2009

Nick Morgan continues work at the Joyful Horse site. Email Nick to be put on his notification list.

Jim Schmidt coordinated Central Texas Trail Tamers and Gault volunteers to install a trail at the Gault Site.  Work was completed in less than a day on March 28.

Jim has also been working regularly at the THC lab, occasionally assisted by May.

May Schmidt, assisted by Jean Hughes, developed and presented a workshop on cataloging artifacts in Paris, Texas, for members of the Valley of the Caddo Archaeological Society, March 20-22.  They are setting up a lab to process artifacts form additional work done on sites on the Stallings Ranch.

March 31 found both regional directors representing TAS simultaneously in public venues.  Jim spoke at the Senate Natural Resources Committee meeting opposing SB1829 (which would allow artifact collecting on public waterways) while May attended the Press Conference announcing Texas History curriculum (4th grade) about the Governors Mansion.

The Travis County Archeological Society met at another location in March: Hang Town Grill on Burnet Road and RM 2222. Andy Hemmings spoke at the February meeting on Searching for the Early Occupation of the Northeast Gulf of Mexico.  Harry Shafer followed in March speaking about the Woodland Cultures of East Texas and Their Central Texas Connection.  At the April 9 meeting Charles Hixson is to speak on Dstretching the Pictographs at Painted Indian Cave (41BC1).

The Llano Uplift Archaeological Society met in February with Bob Wishoff speaking on his investigations at the Alibates Quarry in the Texas Panhandle.  LUAS also surveyed land near the confluence of the Little Llano and Llano Rivers in February.

The Central Texas Archaeological Society has a website up and running now.  Trey Crumpton presented the March meeting: progress on his thesis The Oaks of Independence: An Environmental History of the Original Site of Baylor University and the Potential Surrounding Historic District.  The April 9 meeting will feature Baylor students reporting on an archaic site near Hamilton.

Ecological Communications Corporation will start archeological investigations of Zilker Park April 6. Local volunteers will be included in activities, especially on Saturdays, including April 18 (Austin Nature Day).

May Schmidt will be presenting at THC’s Historic Preservation Conference at Lakeway on April 16 on involving other groups in TAM projects.

Top

May and Jim Schmidt     E-mail: at region09@txarch.org

May and Jim Schmidt have been actively involved in Texas archeology for more than thirty years.  May's family first participated in the 1962 TAS Field School when family friend E. Mott Davis invited the family to Comal County to camp and dig.  Jim came along to the Guadalupe Mountains Field School after he and May returned from Peace Corps service in El Salvador. From the mid-1970s, Field School has been their family vacation involving their two children, Erna Martin and Christian Schmidt.  They are looking forward to a fourth generation of participation with their granddaughter, McKenna Martin.

Both are Texans by birth: May from Austin, Jim from Boerne.  They met as students at UT Austin.  Jim graduated from Huston-Tillotson College (BA in Sociology), Austin Community College (L.V.N. and R.N.) and returned to UT Austin after retiring as a nurse at the Austin State Hospital to complete a B.A. in Anthropological Archeology.  May graduated from U.T. Austin (B.A. in History and Economics, M.A. in Latin American Studies, Masters in Library Science) and retired from the Austin Public Library.  Both continue to work part-time: Jim at the French Legation and Wells Branch, May at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory (Librarian).  Both are Archeological Stewards with the Texas Historical Commission.

In addition to TAS, they are members of the Travis County Archeological Society, the Southern Texas Archaeological Association and the Llano Uplift Archeological Society.  Current archeological projects include excavation at the Bowmer Site and San Felipe de Austin, lab work at the Texas Historical Commission (rebagging the Red River Field School) and screening materials from Military Plaza in San Antonio.

Back to Regional Societies