Van Winkle Hollow touted during archaeology month
Posted on Friday, March 28, 2008
BENTON COUNTY - About 75 elementary-school students sat in two lines in the grass at the Van Winkle Hollow area of Hobbs State Park- Conservation Area on Thursday. Two yellow buses idled in the parking lot, waiting to swallow up the students and carry them back to school.
One lecture down and one more to go before George Sabo would finally start teaching for the day.
The second group at Van Winkle Hollow was smaller, about a third the size of the first. It was mostly adults - the children who were there had come with their families.
Sabo, a professor of anthropology at the University of Arkansas, led both groups on an educational stroll through the park, imparting the history of the park that he, his colleagues and his students have spent the last 10 years discovering - actually, uncovering.
Under the ground at Van Winkle Hollow, Sabo and a slew of university students found the remnants of buildings owned by the Van Winkle family around the time of the Civil War. Peter Van Winkle's house, slave quarters and flower garden were all located, as were the town blacksmith's building and the mill.
Walking back to the parking lot at Van Winkle Hollow, where he needed to quickly return to the road to reach his afternoon classes in time, Sabo confessed he felt a little embarrassed to be getting all the attention for the project.
It was his colleagues who dug, who analyzed. It was his students who researched, who performed the menial and undesired tasks, he said.
"We had a lot of students working in our lab, and you can get students to do just about anything," Sabo said.
Sabo stood with the megaphone Thursday because he was the last of the group. The students had graduated, the faculty moved on, Sabo said. He is the only one now available with the institutional knowledge to detail 10 years' worth of excavation and study in a 90-minute tour of the ruins.
Soon, Sabo may be passing on the megaphone. He spoke Thursday for the park's observance of Arkansas Archeology Month. Next year, others may be ready to give Sabo's speech.
In his audience Thursday morning were four people with notebooks. Steve Chyrchel, interpretive naturalist for the park, said the four were volunteers taking notes so they could lead future tours of the area. The preparation is in anticipation of the park's visitors center's grand opening. Chyrchel said the building could be finished by the end of August but would likely not open until early 2009.
Sabo, who figured he would avoid trouble by praising both his Thursday morning groups, said the young and old alike asked good questions, acted in a polite manner and refrained from throwing anything at him. But when the second tour was finished, he was ready to head back to work.
"I gotta go back and teach a class now," Sabo said. "I'm not quite done talking for the day."
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