The PIT story begins in 1988, when Forest Service archaeologist Gordon Peters discovered that not a single student had registered for his University of Minnesota-Duluth field school. To help boost enrollment, a local resort offered to recruit volunteers for the following year’s field season, marking the start of the PIT program. Inspired by the Ontario Archaeological Society’s “Passport to the Past” program, PIT went nationwide in 1991, growing to include 117 national forests in 36 states.
Since that first summer, thousands of volunteers have assisted with thousands of projects on national forest lands, and over 200 of those people have logged more than 200 volunteer hours apiece! PIT volunteers have helped stabilize ancient cliff dwellings in New Mexico, excavate a 10,000-year-old village site in Minnesota, restore a historic lookout tower in Oregon, clean vandalized rock art in Colorado, survey for sites in a rugged Montana wilderness, and excavate a 19th-century Chinese mining site in Idaho’s Hell’s Canyon.
Passport in Time is more than just a program or any single archaeological project. It is an inclusive community of volunteers, friends, and colleagues who help to not only protect and conserve the sites, memories, and objects that chronicle our collective past, but also provide context and education crucial to understanding the human story in North America, ensuring that our collective stories are told for generations to come.
