News Release, St. Mary’s College of Maryland
Scott Strickland, adjunct instructor of anthropology, and Julia King, professor of anthropology, are featured in this Bay Journal article: https://bit.ly/2ERGxgq. King and Strickland lead the team surveying land along the Rappahannock River for Indian artifacts under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Until recently, the Fones Cliffs property was off-limits.
Since purchasing the property in 2018, The Conservation Fund has been preparing for its transfer to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this month. The 252 acres of forests, fields and deep ravines will become part of the Rappahannock River Valley National Wildlife Refuge, protecting habitat for one of the largest concentrations of bald eagles in the country while adding to the refuge’s 9,000 protected acres along the Northern Neck.
King and Strickland’s team have plans to continue looking for evidence of three Indian villages that, based on explorer Capt. John Smith’s records, they believe were located along these cliffs in 1608.