By Heather Michon
Correspondent
An archaeologist who participated in the survey of a proposed water pumping station on the James River at Point of Fork said in a sworn statement that work conducted at the site was “illegal, unethical, and unscientific” and that the company’s owner lied to state investigators, used unqualified and untrained staff, misrepresented professional credentials, and minimized significant archaeological discoveries.
The sworn statement is being proffered by Marion Werkheiser of Cultural Heritage Partners, the law firm representing the Monacan Nation, in an Oct. 21 letter to the Army Corps of Engineers, asking that a permit to develop the site be denied.
Point of Fork is believed by many historians and archaeologists to be the site of Rassawek, the primary settlement for the Monacan Indian Nation at the time of the English arrival at Jamestown in 1603.
Eric Mai worked for Circa Cultural Resouce Management as a field technician for six years and was on-site at Point of Fork from May 2017 to January 2018. He resigned from in May 2018, in part because of the mismanagement he said he saw on the project.
Last month, the Virginia Department of Historic Resouces (VDHR) informed the James River Water Authority (JRWA) that they had learned that Circa’s owner and principal, Carol Tyrer, did not meet the professional qualifications required by law to conduct a valid survey. As a result, VDHR said they were denying a necessary permit for the site, and the Army Corps of Engineers likewise said they would need to reevaluate the project.
Mai’s statement, however, goes well beyond a lack of credentials. Among his allegations:
- Tyrer failed to give the team background on Rassawek or the Monacan tribe. None of the crew members had specific training in Native American history or archaeology. While Mai has a Masters’s degree, the two other team members did not have college degrees and “were hired as a result of family friendships with Tyrer.” Not only did they lack training, they also lacked the technology to map or analyze the site. Tyrer gave them only a hand-drawn map with notes on where to dig test pits.
- Tyrer was usually absent from the site. When a VDHR employee made a surprise visit in October 2017, Tyrer allegedly told the staff to lie and say she was normally there. After that, “Tyrer was present more frequently on-site, though she typically sat in her vehicle completing reports for other projects.”
- Tyrer enlisted construction workers to dig some of the pits and screen for artifacts, “although they told me they had no idea what they were looking for.” The workers were employed by Faulconer Construction, which, like Circa, was subcontracted by the engineering firm Timmons Group for work on the site.
Despite all this, Mai said that the archaeological remains they found “were among the most impressive I saw during my more than six years with Circa.” He said they found evidence of “significant human habitation” in almost every deep trench they built.
“It is a testament to how special this place is that one could perform tests as purposefully incompetently as Circa did and still find nine National Register eligible sites in an area a few acres in size,” said Werkheiser.
In the letter, Werkheister argued that Tyrer’s work constituted “anticipatory demolition” of a historic property. If they agree with her argument, the Corps would not be able to issue a permit according to the rules of the National Historic Preservation Act, which prevents the issuing of grants and permit to anyone found to have deliberately damaged a historic site.
The James River Water Project is a multimillion-dollar joint venture between Louisa and Fluvanna counties to carry millions of gallons of James River water per day to Zion Crossroads and other parts of Louisa County.
Both Fluvanna and Louisa counties have issued statements saying they are taking the new allegations “very seriously.”
“A thorough review will be conducted in order to determine whether or not these allegations will be contested,” Fluvanna County officials said in a recent press release. “If the allegations are founded, the Fluvanna County Board of Supervisors will pursue necessary and appropriate action to ensure the protection of taxpayer dollars.”
