The Gault School Legacy of Discovery and Education Q&A with Dr. Jon Lohse
The Gault School of Archaeological Research (GSAR) has played a pivotal role in reshaping our understanding of early human history in the Americas. As a nonprofit organization, GSAR was founded with a dual mission: to promote research into how and when the first peoples arrived in the New World, and to protect and conserve the Gault archaeological site in Texas. Over the years, GSAR has been at the forefront of groundbreaking discoveries, challenging the long-held “Clovis First” theory and pushing the timeline of human presence in the Americas to at least 20,000 years ago. Through a commitment to research, education, and community outreach, GSAR has become a hub for lifelong learning and a guardian of cultural heritage. Dr. Lohse is board president of the Gault School.
The Gault School, or GSAR, was founded several years ago to serve as the 501(c)3 non-profit organization that would eventually sponsor and carry out research at Gault and help provide stewardship for the site itself. The initial research mission of GSAR was to conduct and promote studies into the Settling of the Americas: how, when, and by what routes did early peoples come into what we now call the New World, or North and South America. This is one of the Americas’ biggest archaeological questions and it represents the final chapter of the expansion of modern humans across the globe. Along the way, it was important to provide learning opportunities for students of all ages, and what quickly emerged was a program committed to using archeology as a means of inspiring lifelong learning and an appreciation for cultural heritage.
Historical Significance
GSAR has sponsored long-term research at Gault that looked into the question of when people may have first arrived at the site and what their material culture looked like. This work was concluded a few years ago, but played a major role in questioning the long-held paradigm that archaeologists called “Clovis First.” This model proposed the earliest peoples who entered the Americas were Clovis big game hunters who arrived from northeast Siberia no more than about 13,500 years ago. Thanks to work at Gault and other important sites, we now know how the Americas were settled is a lot more complicated than that, with people here by at least around 20,000 years ago.
Education, research, and conservation
With fieldwork at the site concluded, GSAR is turning toward a more outward-focused vision. Inspired by our founding director, Dr. Michael Collins, we work with landowners to help increase awareness of opportunities to conserve natural green spaces through existing land conservation programs. Dr. Collins has been a world-class researcher for all of his career, and we aspire to follow in that tradition. However, today we use research — the lessons that we’re learning and the methods that we employ — to create enthusiasm for learning and education as well. So for us, research is not simply being conducted for its own sake, but to help build excitement around opportunities for education and conservation.
Community Involvement
Over the years, GSAR has given back to the community via classroom and public lectures, and by opening the site for educational tours that focus not only on archeology and the excavations that have been conducted here but on natural resources, geology, landscape ecology, and wildlife biology. We are committed to providing free access to educational partners who are interested in learning about the site, and in using the information that we have to offer to help improve or increase their own educational impact.
What do you love Most about the School?
It is currently my privilege to serve as the Gault School’s board president, but I have been involved with research at the site off and on since 1991. I have seen the operation grow from a series of intermittent opportunities to document or investigate small bits of an extraordinary, world-class archaeological site to a visionary program dedicated to building a better world through some of the lessons and content archeology has to offer. Today, the organization is largely about supporting others in their learning, research, and conservation journeys. We continue to look for ways to “pay forward” the investments our founder, Dr. Michael Collins, made in the program and has provided for so many.
What’s upcoming
GSAR is in a transitional period right now. This is the first time we have operated without an executive director, and our board is working hard to define our pathway as we continue growing forward. We are committed to collaborating with educational institutions and working with teachers to help them inspire learning and curiosity for their students. In terms of research, GSAR currently sponsors two projects. The first is an ongoing survey of Folsom projectile points from across Texas. This study complements an earlier one (both conducted by Dr. Alan Slade) that compiled an inventory of Clovis points. The other is a project in Belize that is documenting what is perhaps the most prolific fluted biface site in Central America. That project will tell us a lot about how Central America was settled during Clovis times and immediately following. We have posted updates and summaries of both of these projects at GaultSchool.org/research.
Gault’s upcoming documentary
We are all very excited about “The Stones Are Speaking.” This is a full-length documentary put together by our friend and colleague Olive Talley. She has done a truly wonderful job of gathering and compiling interviews and historical footage — some featuring Mike Collins in his earlier career days and even as a child — to tell the compelling story of his dedication to higher ideals. We hope people will find it a moving, inspirational story about committing to our shared heritage and cultural and natural resources. It’s a special film, and Olive has done a tremendous job with it. Visit GaultFilm.com to view the trailer.
Get involved
People who are interested in learning more about GSAR can visit our website, gaultschool.org. The site will soon be transitioning to gaultarcheology.org and will automatically direct people to the new site once the new site is live. We are working with our regional partners, the Bell County Museum and the Williamson Museum, to be able to provide tours on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month; parties of eight or more should contact us directly.