About
The Archaeologist and the Explorer
At the trailhead in the Wichita Mountains
About
Brian Franklin
Brian Franklin is a coffee roaster, endurance athlete, and producer of the Archaic World podcast. He has been hiking in the Wichitas since childhood.
Paul Bowman
Paul Bowman is an archaeologist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. An experienced field archaeologist with expertise in the oil and gas industry, telecommunications, and tribal consultation. His specialty is in faunal analysis and zooarchaeology. He is on the board of the North American Wood Ape Conservancy.
Jim Meyer
Jim Meyer is president of the Friends of the Wichitas Association. The Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge is the most visited refuge in the United States, receiving more than 2 million visitors a year.
Bob Simmons
Robert Holschuh Simmons is associate professor and chair of Classics at Monmouth College. He holds a Doctorate in Classics from the University of Iowa, 2006.
Bobby Williamson
Bobby Williamson grew up in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, living in the iconic Ferguson House, a 1927 landmark home constructed of cobblestone. He’s a twenty-year member of the Friends of the Wichitas.
James Waldo
James Waldo is a professional geologist, researcher, podcaster, and all-around adventurer. He was born with an inquiring mind that has driven his interests in science, history, technology, geography, geopolitics and world travel. He hosts the Seven Ages Audio Journal with Micah Hanks and Jason Pentrail.
Lee Bement
Lee Bement specializes in animal bone archaeology, particularly as represented in Plains bison kill sites of all ages. He studies the interplay between people, prey animals, landscape features, and the environment, as well as technological developments in hunter-gatherer and horticultural societies.
Craig Ratzat
Craig Ratzat is a flintknapper with more than fifty years experience. He is the owner of Neolithics, a worldwide flintknapping distributor “located in a Keokuk Chert Quarry in Oklahoma.”
Brian Flynn
Brian Flynn graduated from the University of Wyoming with a degree in Geology. He serves as vice president of geology at BRG Energy, an exploration company with operations in East Texas, Western Oklahoma, and the Texas Panhandle.
Cat Bigney
Cat Bigney hosts or appears in survival and anthropology TV programming around the world, including The Great Human Race, Ed Stafford: First Man Out, and The Island with Bear Grylls. She is head instructor at the Boulder Outdoor Survival School.
Photo credit: National Geographic