News

At the 2022 SCA Annual meeting, Kelly McGuire, one of Far Western’s founders, was awarded the Martin A. Baumhoff Special Achievement Award. Here’s a bit of what Bill Hildebrandt had to say about presenting Kelly with this award:

“This award is for people that have a career of conducting outstanding research and publication. This year’s recipient, Kelly McGuire, has certainly achieved these things and much, much more. Kelly has had a long and successful career in archaeology and has shown a remarkable ability to translate his findings into publications that are relevant to regional, national, and international audiences. He is a founding member of Far Western Anthropological Research Group, and the only person that has worked there for its entire 42-year history. California archaeology would not be what it is today without McGuire’s contribution to the creation and ongoing success of Far Western. Kelly McGuire’s multi-decade record of conducting meaningful research and publishing his findings in the some of the most prestigious archaeological outlets that we have, makes him a deserving recipient of the Martin A. Baumhoff Special Achievement Award.”

Congrats Kelly!

​​​​​​We are excited to announce that Shannon DeArmond, Phil Kaijankoski, and Cassidy DeBaker will be joining Far Western as company principals this fall.  They join Kelly McGuire, Jeff Rosenthal, Craig Young, Jay King, Paul Brandy, Daron Duke, Adie Whitaker, and Barb Siskin.  We are glad to have them on board in this time of rapid growth for the company, and we feel they exemplify the skills and values that make Far Western special.

Shannon is the company’s geographic information systems (GIS) department supervisor and has worked for Far Western since 2010. She has over twenty years of experience using GIS in cultural resources management. Her responsibilities include overseeing a wide range of geographic data-collection and management projects, designing and deploying customized data applications, and overseeing project-specific data collection and cartography in support of archaeological fieldwork.

Shannon received her Bachelors of Science degree from the University of California, Davis, in Environmental Resource Science with an emphasis in geology. She is a member of Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA), the Society of Conservation GIS, and the California Geographical Society.

Cassidy is a principal investigator, historical archaeologist, and tribal liaison at Far Western. She graduated from University of Oregon in 2001 with a degree in Archaeology and Environmental Studies. She received her master’s in Cultural Resources Management from Sonoma State University in 2012.  Cassidy has been working in CRM for more than eighteen years as a professional archaeologist, with research, fieldwork, and analysis focused in northern and central California and the Pacific islands.

At Far Western she is responsible for overseeing cultural resources projects to ensure that compliance and technical investigations meet the highest standards, including contracting, budgeting, field study, research, analysis, report production, and staff training.  She directs Far Western’s historical archaeology program.

Phil serves as a principal investigator and geoarchaeologist. He graduated from California State University, Chico in 2001 with a major in Anthropology and a minor in geology. He continued to pursue his interest in geoarchaeology while at Sonoma State University, where he received his Master’s in 2006.

He has been working as a professional archaeologist since 2000. In 2008, Phil joined Far Western as a geoarchaeologist working under his mentor Jack Meyer. His role later expanded to principal investigator as he authored numerous excavation reports on the archaeology of the San Francisco Bay Area, Northern and Central California coast, and the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys.   

His current research interests include Holocene landscape evolution, paleoenvironmental change, and their effects on people living in the past.

In October of 2017, numerous wildfires driven by high winds burned over 200,000 acres in Northern California. One of these, the Nuns Fire, burned over 56,000 acres in Napa and Sonoma Counties. The fire burned through portions of the Enchanted Hills Camp for the Blind and Visually Impaired, on forested Mt. Veeder eight miles northwest of Napa. After the fires, a PG&E forester visited the area to look for trees that would have to be removed near power lines. With the groundcover burned away, the forester saw a dense scatter of artifacts on the ground surface. Eric Wohlgemuth led the archaeological work at the site and found surprisingly dense artifacts, bone, and shell, including a fish bone from San Pablo Bay 25 kilometers away. The site was used as a short-term hunting camp about 900 years ago, then as a summer family camp about 400 years ago. Eric worked with Art Director, Tammara Norton to produce a truly unique educational booklet about the site…in Braille. The booklet includes raised impressions of a map showing the location of the Camp and the Wappo Tribe territory, a projectile point, biface, flake knife, and bone awl. The booklet will accompany the artifact collection that will be used to teach the Camp students about Native Americans.

We are happy to share that Jay King has been elected the new President of Far Western. 

Jay has worked as an archaeologist in California and the Great Basin since 1991; he began working at Far Western in 1999 and became a principal at the company in 2015. His archaeological work has been published in American Antiquity, the Journal of Archaeological Science, the American Museum of Natural History Anthropological Papers, the Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology, and other outlets.  He is also a GIS and database specialist, having worked on a wide range of cultural resources data-management projects for clients such as Caltrans, the Bureau of Land Management, and the California Historical Resources Information Centers. 

Congratulations, Jay!