IHAVE HAD the opportunity to review the archaeological report for Crow's Nest, and would like to share with you what the report means to me. I have worked as an archaeologist and as an archaeobotanist in Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, and Colorado, and have an undergraduate degree and graduate work in archaeology.

The report is staggering, with more than 500 pages of data on the archaeology of Crow's Nest; the implications are overwhelming. My initial response to the report is that Stafford County is fortunate that the unearthing of such important information was made before development of the parcel could occur. This is the opportunity of a lifetime, or many lifetimes--the chance to preserve both prehistoric and historic sites that span a continuous timeline from 8000 B.C. to the present day.

The Planning Commission should be commended for its insight in requiring that the archaeological study be under- taken. This peninsula holds in its bowels the prehistory of our county and the historic beginnings of a Colonial existence with tobacco plantations of 1673, up through the fiery demolition of the Daniels home in 1862-63. Crow's Nest holds the stories of all those souls who lived in Stafford long before it was called Stafford.

Sites on the Crow's Nest peninsula contain the prehistoric record of the people who lived here as hunters and gatherers when Stafford was much cooler, and the plants that existed were those adapted to the colder climate. During this time, called the Archaic Period, people moved frequently, following the harvest seasons and herds of animals upon which they preyed. It was a time when men fashioned large projectile points out of orthoquartzite, chalcedony, and argillite.