ABSTRACT
As a child growing up in the American South, parented by avid readers of history and surrounded by Civil War battlefields, early settler log cabins, and Woodland-era mounds, it came as no surprise to my family when I announced that I would be pursuing an education in historic preservation. I had a great appreciation for public history and sought to develop this interest by learning all that I could about historic architecture, local history research, museums, and art history. As I was particularly interested in the interpretation and preservation of precontact histories and sites, I also undertook a minor in archaeology.
