Join the Denton County Office of History and Culture for the Texas Talks Speaker Series!

On Wednesday, October 4 at 6 PM, archaeologist Dr. Reid Ferring will present “Discovering the First People of Denton County” in the Commissioners Courtroom at the Denton County Courthouse-on-the-Square Museum. This presentation is sponsored by the Denton County Historical Commission in celebration of Texas Archaeology Month.

On Dec. 2, 1988, Dr. Ferring and his eight year old son, Taylor, were on a mission to collect fossils for Taylor’s 3rd grade class near their home in Aubrey, Texas. What they discovered that day turned out to be one of the oldest campgrounds in North America—well over 11,000 years old.

Archaeological excavations of this site in Aubrey by Dr. Ferring revealed an exceptionally preserved record of Late Pleistocene environments and the activities of Clovis people along the Trinity River. Over 9,000 stone artifacts and 25,000 bones of animals provide evidence of Clovis food procurement and processing. At 13,500 years ago, these are the earliest records of Clovis in Texas.

About the speaker:

Dr. Reid Ferring is a Professor Emeritus at the University of North Texas, as well as an archaeologist and geologist, focusing on Eurasia and the North American Great Plains. He maintains research interests in Clovis Paleoindian occupations of the Southern Plains and lithic technology. Dr. Ferring teaches a variety of courses including Physical Geology, Soils Geomorphology, Geology of Texas, Origins of Civilization, and regional archaeological surveys of the Old World and New World. He advises graduate students and supervises their research in their chosen areas as well as his research projects.