Minnesota born, Kent Skaar (pronounced Score), is a field oriented
archaeologist under contract to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
(DNR) through the employ of the Minnesota Historical Society's "Trails and
Waterways" Division of Archaeology.
A self-professed "shovel bumb," Mr. Skaar is the sole state-level archaeologist in charge of cultural resource data collection in relation to Minnesota's 12 state trails and waterway areas slated for development. Public use of canoes, kayaks, walking, hiking and biking all relate to his position. Preservation is the preferred course of action in relation to sites found. He digs test pits, collects and cleans artifacts and reviews data for the writing of official reports. Skaar identifies sites so that they may be preserved for future generations. Of Skaar's 60 to 90 projects a year, 10 percent usually contain cultural data. Data cannot be used to preclude the state's purchasing of lands. An interesting fact is that Skaar's department has never completed a recovery to date.
Born in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, of Norwegian ancestry, Skaar developed a fondness for archaeology in boyhood, as he would collect arrowheads with his parents and older relatives in Central Minnesota. Skaar grew up in Mankato, graduated from Mankato West High School, and earned a Bachelors Degree degree at Mankato State University (now Minnesota State University, Mankato) in 1987. A Masters Degree followed in 1993 from the same college. His thesis was on a proposed Minnesota Department of Transportation highway expansion near New Ulm, Minnesota. This area happened to contain a Woodland multi-component habitation site with rare Havana ceramics.
Today, as an archaeologist so often on his own in the outdoors, Skaar has to be self-reliant and a disciplined professional. He enjoys not having a year-around desk job since his position takes him from border to border. He likes the diversity in culture and topography that he sees whenever the lack of snow allows him to dig. Outside of his family life and career, Skaar's slim spare time is spent studying architecture for the job, and in relation to the restoration of his Victorian Era home in North Mankato.
Mr. Skaar's work has led him to such projects as a 30-mile survey of the Root River Trail System in southeastern Minnesota between Rushford and Houston, where a nicely stratified habitation dated to the Archaic through the Late Woodland (Oneota) was discovered. Another project led to the protection of the 1905 shipwreck, Hesper, in the cold waters of Lake Superior adjacent to the West breakwall in relation to the Silver Bay Harbor of Refuge Project in 1996.
Mr Skaar states, "I am not a Historian," although his job sometimes takes him to the gray area which exists between archaeology and history. He must be knowledgable about the cultures of Minnesota's European pioneers and Native Americans. In addition to the Contact Period, Skaar must also be knowledgeable about local Paleo peoples.
Besides being compliance driven, Kent Skaar wonders, "What is it that dictates why Paleo sites are there?" He uses advances in 3-D computer models to look at sites as they may have appeared in the past. The curiosity that drives Kent Skaar relates to understanding a site's cross-cultural and cross-temporal components, with the topography and vegetation thereupon being the constant force that sustains life and adds significance. Kent Skaar seems to be an archaeologist with little ego and a lot of curiosity... a true professional.
To contact Mr. Skaar via e-mail:kent.skaar@mnhs.org
Personal Interview with Kent Skaar, 02/04/1999.
Internet - http://winonanet.com/visitors/biking.html#root
Internet - http://www.mnhs.org/places/nationalregistershipwrecks/hesper/hespd.html
Skaar, Kent, "The Cultural Resources Investigation of The Heymans Creek Site...", Mankato State University, 1994.
Author Steven L. Burgstahler