Free public talk: Archeologist presenting on historical mining on the Caddo, Womble Districts of Ouachita National Forest

Laura Donaldson, Ouachita National Forest archeologist, will present “Historical Mining on the Caddo and Womble Districts of the Ouachita National Forest” at the August meeting of the Ouachita Chapter of the Arkansas Archeological Society. This talk will be held on Tuesday, Aug. 6, at 7 p.m. in the Board Room at Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts, 200 Whittington Ave., Hot Springs.

The event is free and open to the public.

The Ouachita Mountains hold a wealth of mineral resources, which have been mined and collected by people for thousands of years. The Caddo and Womble Ranger Districts of the Forest in particular have a very diverse set of minerals that humans have found desirable for tool making, industry, domestic use, wartime use, and hobby collecting.

Some of these extraction efforts prompted the construction of mining camps and even entire towns devoted to mineral extraction, the remains of which exist today as archeological sites that can be investigated to learn more about early mineral extraction techniques and the lives of the people in these communities.

Laura Donaldson holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Anthropology from Western Washington University and a Master’s Degree in Anthropology from the University of Nevada-Reno. She began her career in archeology working for the National Park Service in Washington, California, and Utah, followed by several years working in private Cultural Resource Management (CRM) in Oregon. She returned to federal service working for the Forest Service as an Archeologist on the Modoc National Forest in northern California, and transferred to the Ouachita National Forest as the Caddo-Womble District Archeologist in 2018. Laura lives in Hot Springs with her husband and 3-year-old son.

The Arkansas Archeological Survey’s research station at Henderson State University, 1042 Haddock St., Arkadelphia, holds regular Archeology Lab Days on Thursdays. Students and members of the public are invited to come by the research station on Thursdays between 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. to learn more about archeology in Arkansas. For more information, contact Mary Beth Trubitt at 870-230-5510.