Plymouth Historical Society presents program on the mysteries of southeast Alaskan rock art

PLYMOUTH ― On Wednesday, Feb. 11, Plymouth’s own Terry Fifield will introduce the amazing designs etched and painted on the rocky coasts of Southeast Alaska. This is an online presentation slated for 5:30 p.m.

Fifield will outline several approaches to documenting, understanding, and managing Alaskan Native rock art on the remote coastal islands where he lived and worked from 1990 to 2009. The program will feature photographs of petroglyphs and pictographs, and the process of recording the data collected from a variety of sites on and near Prince of Wales Island. He will discuss the interdisciplinary and cross-cultural projects and the methods of recording used to gain perspective on the designs and the places they occur while minimizing effects to the sites themselves. He will also describe the significance of the rock art to the varied residents and visitors to Southeast Alaska’s wild places.

Fifield is an archaeologist and tribal relations specialist retired after a career with the federal government. He is currently serving as president of the Plymouth Historical Society. During his 27 years with the Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs, National Park Service and U.S Forest Service, he had the opportunity to work in New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, New Hampshire and Maine. During his time in Alaska he spent 16 years as the archaeologist and tribal liaison for Prince of Wales Island, a little over 2 million acres of coastal rainforest and remote islands at the southern tip of the Alexander Archipelago. Most recently he served as archaeologist for the White Mountain National Forest and an instructor for the University of Alaska Southeast, Ketchikan.

Join the Plymouth Historical Society at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 11 for this online program. Information on how to attend is posted on the Plymouth Historical Society website at plymouthnhhistory.org and on their Facebook page.