Anthropology major shares experiences with National Park Service

Maybe spending two months on a nearly deserted island, constantly watching for aggressive feral animals, and then hustling off while being threatened by a hurricane sounds like fun. No, it’s not a famous network reality show. It’s how Whitney Hadley-Salay spent part of her fall semester.

Hadley-Salay, a senior majoring in anthropology at Purdue University Fort Wayne, had taken a position with the National Park Service working on Cumberland Island, a barrier island off Georgia’s southeast coast. The island was settled as early as 4,000 years ago, and much more recently, inhabited by the family of American steel magnate Andrew Carnegie and his wife Lucy.

There are more than 50 miles of trails and 18 miles of beach, but also diseased, ferocious horses, shoot-on-sight Russian pigs, and excruciating ticks to worry about. Hadley-Salay described the experience during an hour-long presentation on Feb. 1 as part of the Anthropology Club’s Lunchtime Lecture Series in the Science Building.

Mainly, the eight students selected for the program did the dirty work of digging and sifting in search of artifacts. Hadley-Salay, who'd had a few previous taxing, outside jobs like landscaping, said she was prepared.

“I knew what was going to be involved, and I knew what the programs do outside of archeology,” Hadley-Salay said. “They clear trails and stuff like that, so I was expecting the grunt work and had no problem with that.”

However, she was hoping the experience would satisfy her field school requirements in excavation, which did not happen. When Hurricane Ian was ready to make landfall three weeks into the program, the students evacuated to Tennessee, and Hadley-Salay decided not to return to the island.

“The problem wasn’t the job the project manager wanted, it was the job that was forced on him for us to do,” Hadley-Salay said. “Even though I didn’t go back, I still enjoyed the work. It’s a program that I recommend to any early archeology student. You realize if it’s the job for you or not, because it either is or it isn’t.”

And she made some lifetime friends among her co-workers.

During the summer, Hadley-Salay had another fieldwork experience in Newfoundland, Canada. She’s applying for another working at an Irish castle starting in June after she graduates in May. Her next educational goal is to study for her master’s degree in applied archeology at the University of York in England, where she wants to research how people of specific eras used available resources to create the artifacts discovered today.

Hadley-Salay said she became interested in anthropology as a fan of the TV show “Bones,” where the lead character is a forensic anthropologist. Originally, Hadley-Salay’s goal was to study primates like English primatologist Jane Goodall, but she changed to specializing in the study of ancient teeth under the tutelage of PFW anthropology professor Rick Sutter.

Taking part in the Cumberland Island project was a positive experience overall, Hadley-Salay said.

“How many people get to say they lived on an island with maybe 50 people?” she said. “You just don’t know what isolation is until you are smack dab in the middle of nowhere with seven other people.”