
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 30, 1990                   TAG: 9003290609
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ELIZABETH PAULL
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

EXPLORE CHANGEABLE

AS ONE OF the small handful of part-time volunteers who worked the Hofhauger site, I take great exception to Gilbert Butler's name-calling (letter March 22). Archaeological Society of Virginia participation was very limited and Explore did little to encourage our involvement.

We were told we had a deadline and that bulldozers would soon appear. As people with full-time jobs, we had to decide what could be done in a few short weekends.

The dismantling of the house limited our work areas to a few lesser buildings and shovel-testing.

The implication that the local ASV chapter hoards a treasure trove of artifacts is patently misleading. What very little we found was mostly of fairly recent date. Explore is welcome to house them, of course!

A well-documented report is not possible from such preliminary findings. The site would need at least several months of full-time work to gain anything useful. Time and expense permitting, we tried to photograph the interior and exterior detailing. If Explore made any such records, they never shared them with us, nor did they seem interested in such "trivia."

Development of the site did not begin right away and work could have continued. Explore expressed no further desire to document the area. Once the house was removed, they lost all interest.

I do not know where Butler gets the impression of "disarray" at the site. I never saw him observing our work, nor did anyone else from Explore demonstrate any real concern or appreciation of what we were trying to do. We left the site as we found it and filled in the holes we dug. We have no heavy equipment or stacks of supplies and we certainly were not the last ones on the site. Is it Explore's policy to smear those who have legitimate questions?

The viability of a project is indeed the sum of its parts. Haphazard work on the parts can only result in compounding flaws. Butler attempts to sidestep real concerns about Explore. Is it a state park supported by taxpayers? If so, then where is the accountability?

With Virginia's expanding interest in preserving cultural resources, such projects need clear guidelines and well-expressed goals. Explore seems to mutate into something different depending on who they are trying to impress.

by CNB