The new season of free monthly history talks at the historic Schmidt House kicked off with a full house on Thursday, Oct. 20 with a presentation from archaeologist Dr. Dale Croes about the earliest confirmed humans in our area at the time of the Ice Age.   Talk about history!  This was Pre-History in an illustrated talk titled “Elephant Hunting in Thurston County”.  Dr. Croes not only talked about the mastadons, sabre-toothed tigers, giant bears and other ancient animals that lived here, but also shared artifacts from the early humans that lived here.  He also shared some very interesting evidence-based theories of how those people arrived here on the land bridge from Asia and how they came inland to our area from what is today’s Grays Harbor.

The presentation concluded with a unique demonstration in the back yard of the Schmidt House grounds of a working replica of an early hunting weapon that was used with great impact by those early people.  Those who stayed for the demonstration were impressed with the power and ballistics that early weapon produced.

Our next speaker is from Washington State Parks.  On Thursday, Nov. 17, Sam Wotipka will be giving the history of both Tolmie and Millersylvania State Parks here in Thurston County.  Its first come first seated as doors open at 11:30 a.m. for the noon hour talk.  Doors close as we reach capacity, which happened with Dr. Croes’ talk.  We at the “Heritage Builders” program would love to see you here.

Don Trosper