by Adrienne Dale
August 5, 2025
Adrienne Dale retired from 40 years in public education as a teacher, instructional coach, and administrator. She now spends her time travelling to exciting places and undertaking new experiences, including 7 PIT projects with her daughter Emily Dale.
For more about Apex or the Apex, Arizona Archaeology Project, visit our website or email Dr. Emily Dale at emily.dale@nau.edu.
In June of 2025 I volunteered for a third year at the Apex Site in Coconino County, Arizona on the Kaibab National Forest. As I began to gather my thoughts on how to approach this blog post, it occurred to me that I really had to look at my experience through more than one perspective; first and foremost, as a U.S. Forest Service Passport in Time (PIT) volunteer, but also, as part of the Northern Arizona University Field School.
Like many partnerships, this one is both practical and beneficial. The Apex Passport in Time project allows the public to participate in archaeological and historical preservation work in national forests while working with professional historians and archaeologists within the University and the Forest Service. Dr. Emily Dale, historical archaeologist and director of NAU Field School and Charles Webber, Heritage Program Manager with the Kaibab National Forest, worked together to support the PIT project and its untrained volunteers.
As a PIT volunteer, I experienced a steep learning curve! From surveying artifacts to making tape-and-compass maps to counting cans to digging another 10 cm down in the unit to photographing and documenting everything; but every new learning was enormously gratifying. I felt that I was doing my very small part to protect and preserve this amazing old logging camp.
Alongside my volunteer role, I was also able to work with and learn from the Archaeology/Anthropology students enrolled in the NAU Field School. But more than the hard work, we made time to go stargazing, visited prehistoric sites, cooked meals together, played games, watched old movies, and slept in tents.
My favorite daily event was when the “find of the day” was announced. I won after finding a porcelain doll arm, who I named Handrietta.
I am not an archaeologist, but I sure felt like one this summer. At the end of my week, I proudly handed over my Passport in Time passport and received my 8th stamp and accompanying patch.
Mystery Artifact
In honor of this week’s guest blogger, our mystery artifact is a cast iron stove fragment embossed “DALE”. Seemingly from the Right side of the oven, it also bears several other part codes. Let us know if you have any idea what these numbers and letters might mean!
