This summer I had the privilege of being a Keystone Intern for the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office. As a SHPO intern, I was part of the Archaeology Historic Preservation team housed within Environmental Review. Through this internship I got to experience the innerworkings of the PA Preservation system and how invaluable the SHPO’s work is to historic sites across Pennsylvania through site visits with the PA SHPO staff and other PHMC interns.
When I wasn’t in the field on a site visit, I spent my time at the SHPO Office in Harrisburg working on my project. During my internship I was tasked with updating all “below-ground” archaeological reports that had a geomorphological survey attached in PA-SHARE, the SHPO’s GIS platform.
Geomorphological surveys study the soil profile to identify the age of each layer and the potential for pre-contact artifacts. Soil profiles give a unique insight to who would have inhabited each layer and what types of archaeological resources a site may uncover, if any. From Pleistocene cobbles to modern fill, each site report became a puzzle for me to put back together and fix in PA-SHARE.
Soil Profile from Shoop Site 36DA0020.
Throughout my internship I worked on over 450 different surveys from 1981 to 2024. To update each survey, I went through to make sure they reflected the potential for artifacts, listed what type of geomorphology had been done, and mapped the boundaries for surveyed areas that hadn’t been mapped yet. Many of the maps from the 80s and 90s were hard to match to the PA-SHARE system so I had to look at historic aerials and topographic maps to correctly map the boundaries. This quickly became my favorite part of my internship because each new survey was a mini challenge.
Submitting Sites
Other parts of my internship included learning how to submit an archaeological site to receive a site number and updating sites I had worked on at school in PA-SHARE. Each archaeological site receives a unique trinomial identifier from the SHPO’s office. The SHPO follows the Smithsonian Trinomial System, a three-part code which includes the state identifier, 36 is the PA identification number, the County code, and the sequential number from the county of the site. For example, one site I updated was Fort Lyttleton (36FU0042), which was the 42nd site recorded in Fulton County.
A mapped location, the organization running the dig, land use history, resources, and photographs are some of the necessary information when submitting a site for a trinomial. Additionally, I was able to update the site records for several other sites I had visited including Fort Roberdeau (36BL0127). Updating sites I had worked on was rewarding knowing that they now reflect all of the archaeology at a site and can help inform other archaeologists who might want to dig there in the future.
Archaeology Site Visits
As a SHPO intern I participated in multiple site visits to Keystone Grant Projects and archaeological excavations across Pennsylvania. Site visits were definitely a highlight of the internship and being able to see the partner sites of the State Historic Preservation office in person helped to fully grasp the effects of our work. So far, we have visited 2 archaeology sites during the summer and two Keystone Grant visits. The archaeological sites we visited were:
3 Mile Island (36DA0099 & 36DA0100) – An ongoing mitigation project on the south side of the island. Archaeologists are working on two recognized pre-contact sites to save what artifacts they can before the construction of a fish way through that part of the island. This was the first site visit I participated in with the SHPO and the first site I have seen that had a tribal monitor on site to ensure the requirements of several tribes associated with the project were being met and respected.
The Shoop Site (36DA0020) – A Paleoindian site located in Halifax, Pennsylvania, the Shoop site was first discovered in the 1930s. Since then, there have been several archaeologists who have worked on the large pre-contact site. During the two days I spent at Shoop with the SHPO staff we excavated test units, mapped profiles, and plan view mapped multiple units. This was the only site visit I got to be apart of where we were able to excavate, which made the experience stand out and it was great to get to excavate a site with so much archaeological history.
Mapping a test unit at the Shoop Site (36DA0020).
Keystone Grant Projects
The other site visits I got to participate in were visits to Keystone Grant recipients in Delaware and Lancaster County. This included visiting multiple museums and historic houses. During the Delaware County visit the interns got a tour of “Thunderbird Lodge”, also known as the Rose Valley Museum and Lansdowne Theater. The Rose Valley Museum displayed the artwork of several artists associated with the Arts and Crafts Movement of the early nineteenth century. The owners of the home dutifully dubbed “Thunderbird Lodge” for the thunderbird motifs throughout the house were a part of a community of Arts and Crafts artists in Rose Valley.
After our visit at the Rose Valley Museum, we drove to the Lansdowne Theater where construction efforts are focused on revamping a beloved movie theater into a concert hall. By turning the Lansdowne Theater into a concert hall, the project was able to both save the building and the beautiful decoration inside, but also provide a new gathering space for years to come for the citizens of Lansdowne.
The marquee for the Lansdowne Theater announces that changes are coming to the building.
Our visit to the Lancaster County Keystone Grant sites gave me a chance to explore history close to home. As someone raised in Lancaster County, I had never visited any of the sites prior to my visit with the SHPO. Each boasted its own unique history and opened my eyes to the historic places in my area.
Our first visit was to the 1719 Museum. The 1719 Museum is on the property once owned by Hans Herr, an early settler of Lancaster County. The property has the Herrs house open to the public to show the early presence of Mennonite families and has a constructed Longhouse to properly represent that Native American groups inhabited the land long before the Herrs and other Europeans settled there.
The Hans Herr House which has “1719” etched above the door and gave the museum its name.
The afternoon was spent visiting LancasterHistory at two sites, their campus which includes Wheatland the home of James Buchanan, and the home of Thaddeus Stevens and Lydia Hamilton Smith. The Thaddeus Stevens and Lydia Hamilton Smith home is not a Keystone Grant project but is currently being turned into a museum which aims to cover Smith and Stevens legacy as abolitionists and the legacy they have left behind. Once we arrived at Wheatland, we took a tour of the house and learned about Buchannan’s life.
My time at the SHPO has given me a summer full of learning. Whether I was puzzling out boundaries in PA-SHARE, excavating a site with the archaeologists on staff, or learning more about history close to home, I have gained so much experience. Working with geomorphology and GIS systems will have practical applications during my studies and once I graduate.
On top of the practical applications of my internship, getting to explore Pennsylvania history has made me appreciate how much agencies like the SHPO do to preserve and protect our historic resources. I hope that as I return back to school this fall, I am able to take the things I have learned from this internship and continue to explore Pennsylvania’s rich history for a long time to come.
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This week’s guest contributor is Lauren Metzger. Lauren Metzger is a Senior at Juniata College studying Historical Archaeology and Museum Studies. While at school, she is a member of the Juniata College Women’s Lacrosse team and works in the JC Cultural Resource Institute and the Juniata College Museum of Art. Once Lauren graduates she hopes to use her degree to pursue a career in archaeology and eventually get her Masters degree.
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