April 11 Membership Meeting

April 11 TGoM meeting to highlight discoveries of blacksmithing significance at recent Fort Snelling dig

The April 11 membership meeting will be a presentation by Tom Sanders, a Guild member, who was instrumental in developing the interpretive program at the Historic Fort Snelling blacksmith shop.

In the 1970s an archeological dig was done, and many artifacts were discovered in the blacksmith’s shop area. Tom was then part of the five-year project to analyze what was found and begin to tell the story of who those solder blacksmiths were, how the shop was set up, and what was made there.

Tom has a background in archeologiy and blacksmithing, specializing in ancient technologies with a focus on native Americans and early American immigrants. He will share with us what was discovered at the Fort Snelling blacksmith’s shop and what we can learn from what was found.

We’ll gather for this meeting at Oakeshott Institute at 1035 SE 14th Avenue in Minneapolis for our traditional putluck supper at 6:30 pm. The business meeting follows, and then sit back to listen to Tom Sanders share what was learned during the five-year archeological dig.