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Crew Members at Yellow Jacket: 1954-1991

By Jeannette L. Mobley-Tanaka and Richard H. Wilshusen

Over 140 different students and professionals participated in the excavations at Yellow Jacket over the four decades that Joe Ben Wheat worked at the site. Many students, such as Jerry Bair, Doug Bucy, John Westcott, Joy Brown Stevenson, Ruth Hagerman, Priscilla Ellwood, Karen Laitner, Nancy Mahaney, John Cater, Mark Chenault, Andy Darling, Nancy Malville, and Jeannie Mobley-Tanaka worked at the site for three or more seasons. Some such as Jerry Bair would return to visit the site decades after they had first worked at the site. It was a powerful experience for many of the participants.

Joe Ben Wheat was at the site for every season until his retirement and even after that time he continued to participate for at least a portion of each field season. Pat Wheat, Joe's wife for four decades, participated as a skilled archaeologist and recorder in the first years; she became less directly active in field work as student crews grew in number. Fred Lange took over as the director of the project in the mid-1980s, but Yellow Jacket continued to be associated with Joe Ben Wheat because of his long involvement in the project and intent to write up reports for 5MT1 and 3.

A list of crew members and professionals who participated at the site over the decades is presented in Table 1. The list has been composed by going through the field notes and other records. The list includes people who were field school students, active participants for much of the season, professionals in charge of the work (with the exception of Joe Ben Wheat), or visitors who stayed and worked for several weeks. The names of visitors or part-time laborers who worked for several days are usually not included. It is quite possible that some names are missing and will need to be added in the future.

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