Revitalizing Wilfrid Jury’s Museum of Indian Archaeology and Pioneer Life – Phase 1

The first phase in revitalizing Wilfrid Jury’s museum involved changing reporting responsibility for the museum as a non-academic unit of The University of Western Ontario … With the appropriate research and exploration, we decided to establish the museum as a UWO research centre which would accomplish what we had learned through Professor Ames, in that it would be a separate company with its own charitable registration.

Draper Site Field Laboratories and Crew Accommodations

One of the advantages of our field work at the New Toronto International Airport from 1975 to 1979 was that we had the use of some of the buildings which had been expropriated by the Federal Government. Most important was the two-room Glasgow schoolhouse a few km north of Draper. This became our headquarters for the large crews in 1975 and 1978 . . . By undertaking major portions of the processing of the artifacts and information recovered in the field, we were able reduce the amount of such work to be handled back at the laboratories at the University.

Contamination of Living Floors under Longhouses at the Draper Site

We now delve into the challenges of recognizing the potential contamination of living floors under the longhouses. The excavations of Houses 2 and 5 at Draper provide a cautionary tale that if we are to explore the living floors of undisturbed longhouses, we must be aware of the possibility of contamination of these deposits from activities of earlier occupations. This work and the accuracy of it is paramount to us continuing to learn more about our Ontario history and those who lived here before us.