June 26, 2002 – Ken Wild, the V.I. National Park's lead archeologist, recently received the prestigious John L. Cotter Award for excellence in archeology. "It speaks well of the esteem in which he is held in the park's archeological community," park Superintendent John King said.
And, King added, the honor also reflects well on the park.
Wild won the 2002 award for his work done in 2001 on the Cinnamon Bay archeological dig. In this dig, located adjacent to Cinnamon Bay Beach, he led the work of excavating the remains of a Taino ceremonial site.
"It's quite an honor," he said of the award, "but I couldn't have done it without the volunteers and business people who supported the project."
The award is named after the late John L. Cotter, a park archeologist who forged new paths in the field of park archeology. This was the second time Wild was nominated for the award. Making the nomination this time was Steven Pendery, chief of archeology for the National Park Service Northeast regions.
"I quickly noticed he was conducting a model NPS archeology project including a sophisticated research design, extensive involvement of students, innovative interpretation, and uses of specialists, improvement of local public education about St. John island past, and publication plans for the project," Pendery wrote in his nomination.
In the nomination, Pendery said Wild has had a major impact on Caribbean archeology. Additionally, he said, the archeologist's recruitment of thousands of volunteers who toiled to excavate artifacts from the site saved U.S. taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars. He said that more than 700 students from the Virgin Islands along with students from mainland high schools and colleges helped with the dig.
While the digging has now ended, volunteers are still at work cataloguing what was unearthed during the three years that it went on. Many items date back a thousand years, researchers say.
Pendery said he learned of the project by reading local newspapers sent to him by friends on St. John. When he came to the island for a vacation in 1999, he made a point of trekking to Cinnamon Bay to meet Wild.
For background on the archeology project, including photos and a paper written by Wild, visit the Friends of the V.I. National Park web site's "Archeology Home" section.

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