James "Al" Lancaster

Early Life - World War I

James Allen Lancaster was born on the 4th of September 1894 in Clifton, Tennessee to James and Sarah Lancaster, being the fifth of six children. He would move to Oklahoma with his family and work on the family farm for the next thirteen years. The demands of farm life would make school attendance difficult and erratic, and it was because of this that at the age of 21 Lancaster had only just graduated from 8th grade. Following his graduation, Al Lancaster set off to claim his own land via the Homestead Act. He found and staked a claim in Baca County, Colorado in 1915. Shortly after his first harvest, Al Lancaster would volunteer for World War I. As he grew weary of his station in a logging site in Oregon, Al requested a transfer to a combat unit but the war ended before his orders came in.

Moving to Southwest Colorado and Marriage to Alice Lancaster

Following the conclusion of the war and shortly after his return to Baca County, Colorado , Al grew restless and sold his homestead in 1919. After several odd jobs, that included cotton picking and work in the oil fields of Texas, Al found himself in Montezuma county just after the harvest of 1921. It would be in the town of Ackmen, Colorado that Al would meet Alice Pigg and the two would soon be married in Cow Canyon on June 9th 1922. Al Lancaster returned to Oklahoma to help with the harvest two weeks after being married, but as soon as he could he made his way back to Alice and built a small wood-framed house covered with black tar paper on their claim between Cow Canyon and Ruin Canyon.

1924-1927

Their first child, Mary Elizabeth Lancaster would be born on February 14th, 1924 followed by their second daughter, Julia Varue on November 3, 1925. It would also be during this time that Al Lancaster would become familiar with the local geography due to his work with George Williams prospecting for Uranium deposits. As Al and Alice struggled to make a living farming their land, they kept their ear out for possible work. A friend, Ben Williford had been working for Mesa Verde National Park and when they were in need of a plow skinner for the road expansion and improvement to the park entrance, Mr. Williford recommend Al for the job. His introduction to Mesa Verde would be the beginning of a lifelong relationship with the park service, but his involvement with Southwest archaeology would not take place until the 1928 field season.

Survey Work For Paul Martin

It would be the arrival of Paul Martin, an archaeologist working with the Denver Museum of Natural History, to the Sylvan area in the spring of 1928 that would provide Al Lancaster with his first exposure to archaeology. Dr. Martin needed laborers for his excavation of a site located on the land Courtney Dow and was suggested to seek out Al. Ironically, Mr. Lancaster was not excited by the idea of working with Paul Martin because he had already purchased a team of horses and rented additional farm land that he needed to tend to. It would be because of this that Al would tell Martin that he would only agree to work for him if he was willing to pay $5.00 an hour, which Al thought was more money than Martin was willing to pay. Mr. Lancaster was right, and Martin did not hire Al that day and filled his quota for laborers. However, Dr. Martin still needed someone to survey the area for other sites, and when he could find no else that was suitable he returned to Al and offered him the job at $5.00 a day if he could start immediately. The farming was left in the hard working hands of Alice, who had grown up farming and was not afraid of the exhausting demands which she had to add on top of her other daily chores.

The miles and miles that Al Lancaster would survey during that first season would soon allow him to learn how to spot sites based on land geography, ground artifacts, and the growth of vegetation. His natural ability was noted by Paul Martin, who began planning out the 1929 excavation season based on the sites being documented from Al Lancaster's surveying. It would be during 1929 field season that Al Lancaster would get involved with the excavation of Pigg ruin, which was named for his mother-in-law Julia Pigg because of her interest in the site.

Lowry Ruin

On December 6, 1929, Al and Alice celebrated the birth of their third child, Jimmie Rose. The 1930 and 1931 seasons would be the beginning of the excavation of Lowry ruin, a site previously surveyed by Al. The site would be important for demonstrating the northernmost influence of the Chaco Canyon style of architecture. The reason for this would be the archaeological features of a Great House and Great Kiva that would correspond to the style that prior to 1930 had only been documented in other areas of the Southwest.

Al was hired by Paul Martin as the field foreman which allowed Mr. Lancaster to consult with Mr. Martin regarding excavation strategies. Long trenches were dug to determine the perimeter of the structure and the location of the ruins. The volume of dirt required that care was taken in where it was placed and its removal would create the potential for collapses.

The importance of Lowry would attract other archaeologists to the area. One of them, A.V. Kidder, the "Dean of Southwestern Archaeology" discovered that Al Lancaster was responsible for the quality work and he took note of his name in case he would be able to use Al in the future. While the excavation at Lowry would continue until 1937 Al Lancaster was offered other opportunities.

J.O. Brew and Alkali Ridge

A.V. Kidder would be involved in the search to uncover more about Pueblo I (750-900 A.D.) and Pueblo II (900 to 1100 A.D.) culture and suggested to his graduate student who was to direct this search that he should consult with Al Lancaster. Al and J.O. Brew would go to Alkali Ridge in Utah to survey the sites that Kidder was interested in over the course of the next three seasons (1932-1934). Al and Brew organized and oversaw the excavation of thirteen sites. From these J.O. Brew was able to document Pueblo II sites that further illuminated the cultural expansion of the Anasazi within the Southwest.

On April 4, 1933 prior to the start of the second season at Alkali Ridge, William, Al and Alice's first son was born.

1934-1935

In the spring of 1934 Al was offered a job at Mesa Verde National Park, working on ruin stabilization. He was personally selected by Earl Morris to be the foreman for the park's stabilization project. Al would work here until the fall, his efforts resulted in the stabilization of Mug House, Step House, and Spring House.

Awatovi

The great depression was in full force, Al and Alice were unable to make farming of their land profitable. To earn a living both Al and Alice began working at the General Store in Ackmen, CO. On the June 22, 1935 John Olin, Al and Alice's fifth child, was born. In the fall of 1935 Al was approached by J.O. Brew about work available in Arizona surveying what would become the Awatovi Ruin. The work would last for two months that year with the crew camping near the Jeddito Trading Post. This site was located on the Hopi Reservation. Their goal for the 1935 season at Awatovi was to make initial surveys and test pits; during these two months they located sixty-one sites.

Over the next five years Al would continue his work with Mesa Verde and Awatovi, the latter having Al supervise the excavation of 106 rooms and five kivas. The site contained basketmaker III architecture and signs of continuous occupation from Pueblo III to 1700 A.D. J.O. Brew would recognize the work of Al Lancaster at the Awatovi site by naming him the official assistant director of the site and his contributions were acknowledged on the forwards of all J.O. Brew's work. Al had earned the respect and trust of J.O. Brew and the other professionals who had personally meet Al during his work at Lowry and Awatovi ruins. Work at the Awatovi site would continue until 1939. It had been ten years since Al began his archaeological career. It was during this time on March 23, 1938 Sarah Lou was born, making her the youngest of Al and Alice's six children.

Al Lancaster - Archaeologist

Al Lancaster would never claim to be anything more than an "Old Bean Farmer", but it was clear that his true passion was working in the dirt trying to figure out the patterns and culture of the prehistoric people who had worked the land of the Southwest long before any white men had staked their own claims to the land. The fact that people were willing to pay him for digging in the dirt would continue to pleasantly surprise Al for his entire career.

That career was remarkable when considering that at the end of the Awatovi project in 1939, Al was already 45 years old. Who would have known in 1939 that Mr. Lancaster's archaeological career was just beginning? For the next 30 years, Al would spend the majority of his expertise with Mesa Verde National Park.

Mesa Verde and National Park Service Years

The fact that Al Lancaster was 45 in 1939 would have another important impact on his desirability within the National Park Service. With the involvement of the United States in World War II following 1941, Al Lancaster was too old to serve in the military but still capable of providing services to the National Park Service. Much of the work that would take place for the next 11 years would involve the Ruin Road and the Park's desire to provide a driving route for tourists that demonstrated the entire spectrum of archaeological change seen at the park. Unfortunately for the Park, they were missing several key aspects of this spectrum and it was up to Al Lancaster to find them. Al also continued to be responsible for overseeing the maintenance and stabilization of all of the sites within the park.

In 1945 Al Lancaster was sent to the Aztec National Monument which Earl Morris had previously been responsible for excavating. In 1946 Al worked to help stabilize the walls at Cherto Ketl and Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon. In October of 1947, Mr. Lancaster returned to Mesa Verde National Park to help supervise excavations for the project with the Gila Pueblo Archaeological Foundation of sites 353 and 354. Also, during this time Al worked with Don Watson in Navajo and Soda Canyon.

In 1950 the park finished its interpretive program with the sites Al excavated around the planned Ruin Road. In the write-up for the National Park Service, Don Watson, Jean Pinkles, and Phillip Van Cleave honored Al by giving him Senior Author status on their reports to the Park Service. Ruin road was completed and opened to the public in 1951; Al and Alice also moved to Mesa Verde where they would stay until Al's retirement from the National Park Service.

From 1953 to 1956 Dr. Robert Lister of the University of Colorado arranged for a field school to take place at Mesa Verde, to be supervised by Al Lancaster. This was Mr. Lancaster's first opportunity to teach archaeology to students, which he found rewarding. During the last year of the field school (1956) Al was diagnosed with Leukemia.

The Wetherill Mesa Archaeological Project would begin work in Mesa Verde. Through this project, Al would work on the Longhouse in 1961 and Badger House in 1962 where he worked largely to delineate and interrupt the architecture of the sites.

On August 6, 1962, the Park Service awarded Al Lancaster with the Distinguished Service Award from the Department of the Interior. The ceremony was held in Washington D.C. and was attended by a large assortment of Southwest Archaeologists that Al had worked with throughout his career. However, because of Al's lack of formal education, the award listed him as an "Anthropology Aide".

Al retired from full-time duties at the National Park Service in September 1964. However, he continued to work. Emil Haury of the University of Arizona requested Al Lancaster's expertise following his retirement at the Hohokom site of Snaketown. When Al finished assisting Mr. Haury, Al and Alice moved into their retirement home in Cortez, CO. Also, in 1965 Dr. Lister returned to request Al to be a consultant for the Mesa Verde Archaeological Center which once again would have Al working with the University of Colorado Archaeological students. From 1966 to 1967 Al supervised further excavations at Lowry Ruin and was the honored guest at the site's dedication as a National Historic Landmark. 1977 would be the last year Al Lancaster would work with the University of Colorado's Archaeological students. In June 1977 Al Lancaster was given the Distinguished Service Award from the University of Colorado.

Final Years

Following 1977 Al Lancaster would semi-retire from consistent activity within Southwest Archaeology. He and Alice would spend their remaining years in Cortez, CO. However, even in retirement Al and Alice remained busy with family and friends visiting on a weekly basis to reminiscence. On October 28, 1992, at the age of 98 and after over seventy years devoted to Southwest Archaeology Al Lancaster passed away. Alice Lancaster passed away shortly thereafter on June 11, 1993.