The Growth of Historical Archaeology and Its Impact in Arkansas

The earliest professional societies for American archaeology had appeared in the late nineteenth century, and today's leading professional organization, the Society for American Archaeology, was founded in 1934, but their focus was largely directed toward prehistoric Native America. [...] it is not surprising that the earliest interest in historic sites involved post-contact Native American sites or frontier forts and trading posts.1 The Historic Sites Act of 1935, which created a "national policy to preserve for public use historic sites, buildings, and objects of national significance," aligned historical archaeology with the movement for preservation of historic places.