Join Bill Black at the Titusville Historical Society’s to learn more about our region’s native past.
In 1970, Richard (Dick) Ziegler was driving north on Route 8 toward Titusville, PA when he saw large rocks uphill from the road within a small spring-fed hollow. An advocational archaeologist with 15 years of experience conducting controlled excavations across Venango County, he considered the possibility that rock overhangs across the hollow might have provided shelter for Native American travelers. The site, registered as 36-VE-209 was revisited in 2006 by members of the French Creek Archaeological Chapter #26. Using trowels and sifting screens within measured units, an expanded excavation revealed the small site had been used as a probable overnight stop along a well-traveled trail between present-day Franklin, Titusville, and Warren. A PowerPoint program will present the site’s location as a resting place, discuss the excavation methods, consider the cultural significance of recovered artifacts, and present the necessity for use of professional archaeological guidelines.
William (Bill) Black has conducted several community-participation excavations in Venango County including French Fort Machault, explorations in several lawns in Franklin, and a Native American village site near Cooperstown carbon-dated to 1250 CE. He was employed as a public-school teacher for thirty years. With a continuing interest in this region’s past, he attempts to include the communities’ participation in its discovery.
