Michael Quennoz

HRM MA Student, John Welch
Archaeology

Areas of interest

Archaeology of First World War, Early Twentieth Century Archaeology, Maritime Archaeology, Public Archaeology

Education

  • BA, Washington University in St. Louis, Archaeology, 2000

Biography

I have spent the last 10+ years working in cultural resource management working on archaeological survey, testing, and mitigation projects relating to the pipeline, transportation, and construction industries, private development, and public works projects. Although primarily working in Texas, I have also conducted projects across the southeastern United States, the Ohio Valley, and the Black Hills of Wyoming and South Dakota. Prior to entering CRM, I studied nautical archaeology, focusing on the Bronze Age Mediterranean, where I conducted field work in Malta and Turkey.
Originally from Missouri, I’ve been in Texas since 2000 and currently living in Houston. I am an avid reader (science fiction, horror, history), baseball fan (go Cardinals), and craft beer lover.

RESEARCH

I hope to further my investigations of the remains of the First World War training facility Camp Logan that are located in what is now Houston’s Memorial Park. The archaeology of First World War has been under-studied in the United States and the training camps of the era have been subjected to extensive commercial, residential, and military development. This has resulted in few of the camps being archaeologically studied and even fewer examined as a systematic whole. Because the majority of Camp Logan’s footprint is preserved within Memorial Park it provides a unique opportunity to study how the camp functioned as a system rather than focusing on a single preserved location or element of the larger facility. In addition, because the site is largely located within Houston’s largest public park it provides a great opportunity for public outreach programs.

Other Activities

I am a regular participant in the Houston Museum of Natural Science’s Archaeology Day event (at least in the pre-COVID times) and I conduct regular archaeological walking tours of Memorial Park in partnership with the Memorial Park Conservancy. I have also worked along with the Houston Archaeological Society and Houston Arboretum running a project that involved both avocational archaeologists and the general public.

Publications

2020 (Quennoz, Michael) Approaches to Recording and Preserving a World War I Training Camp in Houston’s Memorial Park [Poster Presentation].  Fifty-Third Annual Conference on Historical and Underwater Archaeology. Boston, Massachusetts.

Public archaeology event at the Houston Arboretum “Dress Like an Archaeologist”
Excavating a First World War-era manhole, Memorial Park, Houston, Texas