Off to Magnolia...

I'll be in Magnolia, Arkansas, between 06/26/06 and 06/29/06 spearheading my move in July. This will allow me and my predecessor (the retiring Dr. Frank Schambach) to have some overlap time at the SAU Research Station. I also hope to squeeze in visits to Old Washington State Park and to my nearest AAS neighbor--Mary Beth Trubitt at the HSU Research Station--while I'm there.

You can still get in touch with me via e-mail and my cell. I'll post more on the trip and the town next week.

The History of the SAU Research Station, Part 3

Photographs of the first SAU Station lab...1969.

Dr. Frank Schambach in his lab at Southern State College (now Southern Arkansas University)--01/24/1969.

1969: Schambach taking notes at Crenshaw (3MI6)

The History of the SAU Research Station, Part 2

Photographs from 1968
Click on images for a closer look...

Old Main Building at Southern State College (now Southern Arkansas University) in 1968. This picture appears to have been taken before Dr. Schambach arrived...perhaps it was taken during a trip to negotiate the establishment of the Arkansas Archeological Survey (AAS) Station (see my previous post). Note the "A&M" on the building's facade.

Drs. Ken Cole (left) and Frank Schambach (center) listen to Charles McGimsey at orientation for new AAS archeologists--July, 1968, Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Frank Schambach checking office supply order at the Coordinating office of the AAS--July, 1968, Fayetteville, Arkansas.

The History of the SAU Research Station, Part 1

This snippet is from The History of the Arkansas Archeological Survey by Charles R. McGimsey III and Hester A. Davis (1992), page 44… It chronicles the founding of the Arkansas Archeological Survey's research station at Southern Arkansas University...at least according to Hester Davis.

1968

Meanwhile, Bob was recruiting four other archaeologists and negotiating the contracts and space on the four additional campuses (Arkansas A&M, now the University of Arkansas at Monticello; Southern State College, now Southern Arkansas University; Arkansas State Teachers College, now the University of Central Arkansas, and Arkansas Polytechnic College, now the Arkansas Tech University…Frank Schambach had been in Arkansas in 1966 for a short time because his dissertation was on material excavated by the WPA and Phil Phillips in the central Ouachita River Valley. Correspondence had been initiated with him, and when he came to the Caddo Conference in Arkadelphia in April, he was taken to Magnolia for his final interview with the college officials and accepted the Station Archeologist’s position there. So, by the spring of 1968, there was a commitment for cooperative agreements with all of the state-supported institutions of higher education, just as had been envisioned in the enabling legislation.

Arkansas Archeological Survey Archeologists on steps of Vol Walker Hall, U of A campus, April 13, 1969. Frank Schambach (far left), Hester Davis, Burney McClurkan, Jim Scholtz, Martha Rolingson, Bob McGimsey, Ken Cole, Dan Morse, and John Huner.

Go Muleriders!

If you haven't yet heard through the grapevine, I have accepted a position...really two positions in one. I will be an Assistant Professor at Southern Arkansas University and the Arkansas Archeological Survey's Research Station Archeologist in Magnolia, Arkansas.

When I was doing my "homework" before going to the interview at SAU, I found out that the university mascot was a mulerider! This, of course, peaked my curiosity. What exactly was this mascot referring to and how did it become the symbol of SAU?

Thankfully, the SAU website was nice enough to provide some answers (yeah...I love to get into institutional histories wherever I go).

Southern Arkansas University started out as the Third District Agricultural School (TDAS) and was founded in 1909 "to educate rural youth of the region and to promote better agriculture practices"...Also referred to as "Magnolia A&M," they were known originally as "Aggies" (Thank God, for the change....I think they'd revoke my membership to the Texas Exes if I became an Aggie).

But Magnolia was not at a railhead and (at least on a few occasions) the players rode the livestock to the railroad in order to ride to games with other schools (it WAS, after all, an agricultural school). Thus, the team was proclaimed "the Muleriders." The mascot was officially adopted in the 1920s.

A mascot with a class chip on its shoulder...turning what could be a mark of shame into a badge of honor....Now, that's my kinda mascot!

Tags: mascot, history