Hope Ranch Camp Notesblog/schedules/notices
"Special messages from our great campers and wonderful staff are gathered here. "
Founder - Roberta Hope
Second year and old friends returning... Posted on 07/11/2006
Hope Ranch summer session 1 opened yesterday,
with 15 eager campers, ready to get into
the archaeology of Columbia, Missouri.
Chance and I would like to welcome the finest
archaeologist that I have ever had the pleasure
to know, Jeanette Smoot, to our home at Hope
Ranch. Jean brings a wealth of experience
and a gift with children to her summer at
Hope Ranch, and we are thrilled that she's
decided to spend the summer with us.
Second session begins in ... Posted on 08/12/2006
Hope Ranch begins our second session in two
days, and we have a great group of campers
ranging across grades 9 to 11, so we have
planned a little more advanced archaeological
field work for them to undertake.
We have two sites within Hope Ranch that
are untouched from an archaeological aspect,
since the time of the Civil War in the States.
This next session will be devoted to excavating
one of them. Chance and a neighbor found
some very promising readings on metals in
both of these areas, and we are keeping an
eye on a few more sites on the Hope Ranch
Property, as well as neighboring locations
that have volunteered their land for our
campers and students.
What a find... Posted on 09/29/2006
Hope Ranch campers have had the time of their lives this year.The first session uncovered more interesting archaeological and anthropological finds along Hominy Creek, and we are proud of our campers for their careful attention to detail and record keeping, as the University of Missouri and Hope Ranch now have many excellent flint heads and arrow heads to add to their collections.
Having broken ground on "HR 001" in the second session, we uncovered a pile of booty that was undreamed of when Chance and his friend hallmarked it for excavation a few years back.
Along the back fence line, the shambles of an old outbuilding and it's basement revealed a cache of Native American artifacts and to our complete surprise, a wooden chest containing Civil War era currency and other personal items that must have belonged to a former soldier or family member of a soldier.
Chance and I deeply thank the wonderful faculty of the University of Missouri for their care and experience in helping our campers recover these items and for accepting them into the University Museum. Mizzou has created a special grant for Hope Ranch Foundation, in gratitude for the exceptional work of the campers on this expedition, and for the donation of these articles to their Museum collection.