Dr. Kit Wesler, Speaker at Fall Meeting, November 14, 2009, Kappis Restaurant, Martin, Tennessee. This meeting was held jointly with the West Tennessee Historical Society
Dr. Wesler earned his B.A. from Washington University-St. Louis and his M.A. and Ph.D from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Wesler is a past contributor to the Journal (Vol. X, June 1982). He was Director of Murray State University’s Wickliffe Mounds Research Center until it became a state historic site under the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Dr. Wesler ‘s presentation was an update of his historical archaeology prospectus published in the 1982 issue of the Jackson Purchase Historical Society’s Journal. Beginning with a discussion of the “Vacant Quarter”, an area of the Lower Ohio-Mississippi Valley where total depopulation occurred around the period A.D. 1400-1500, he showed slides of his field research and some of the artifacts recovered on sites at Whitehaven in Paducah, at Columbus-Belmont State Park in Columbus, at the Thomas Moore home in Ballard County and in the Hematite area of the Land Between The Lakes, to name a few. He also discussed the new imaging equipment that allows him to locate ground areas that have been disturbed and therefore contain likely evidence of habitation.
He concluded with a brief discussion of his ongoing research into “lost” towns in the Jackson Purchase area. Among two mentioned were Nashville, KY once located in southwest McCracken County, and the other the first county seat of McCracken county, Wilmington. By maps and the written word, Dr. Wesler knows these towns existed but as he said, archaeology “puts them on the ground” and to do that he needs physical locations to begin his research design. A brief question and answer period followed his presentation.
The West Tennessee Historical Society brought several publications that were given away by raffle; a wonderful surprise for the attendees!!
