In addition to Anthropology 377 and 378, Washington and Lee offers the opportunity for students to participate in archaeological fieldwork during the summer. This has been done under the auspices of the James G. Leyburn program, an endowed program that allows undergraduates and alumni working in anthropology to compete for stipends. Since its inception, this program has provided funding to students enabling them to conduct research or work on cultural resource management projects in the field. Starting in 1989, the program has allowed students to work within National Forests and Bureau of Land Management areas in the states of Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, and Montana as well as in the Lexington area. This program allows students to gain experience in the different aspects of cultural resource management.

     The James G. Leyburn Scholars Program in Anthropology, established in 1979, has provided stipends to more than 150 students, allowing them to author or co-author articles in anthropology, present papers at anthropological meetings, and participate in cultural resource management work.

     Since 1989, students have participated in archaeological fieldwork work within National Forests and Bureau of Land Management areas in the states of Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, and Montana through the Leyburn Scholars program. The undergraduates work with federal archaeologists and gain experience in the different aspects of public cultural resource management work. The opportunities afforded by the Leyburn program allows for very rich and diverse educational experiences in archaeology.

     The work out West began in 1989, when five students helped stabilize historic charcoal kilns and record prehistoric rock art on Targee National Forest, Idaho. Students in the Leyburn program during the mid-1990s worked with Bureau of Land Management (BLM) archaeologists in the Sevier Desert, Utah as well with Forest Service archaeologists in Bridger-Teton National Forest, Wyoming and Gallatin National Forest, Montana. In recent years, students participating in the Leyburn program have traveled to the Canyonlands area of Utah to work on a prehistoric chert procurement site with BLM archaeologist, Nancy Sherin. The results of this work was presented in April 2000 at the 65th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

     Click here for a list of the students who have participated in the James G. Leyburn program from 1989 to the present.