FLORENCE, Wis. — An outdoor education program will take place at 6 p.m. today in Florence, featuring three professional archaeologists — Kevin Akemann, Ryan J. Howell and James Paquette.

This free program will be in the lower level conference room at the Florence Natural Resource Center, 5628 Forestry Drive, at U.S. 2 and Highway 101/70 in Florence. Interest parties may attend in person, or sign up for a Zoom link by registering at www.ExploreFlorenceCounty.com. On the Events page, click on this event and then on “click here for virtual Zoom meeting link.”

Akemann works as a project manager and research specialist at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, doing work all over Wisconsin with particular expertise in LIDAR technology.

Howell works for the Wisconsin Archaeological Society. He has spent 30 years in the field conducting digs and research on sites from 7,000 years ago through the historic 1800s throughout northern Wisconsin, including Florence County.

Paquette has served for more than 35 years as an educator and public speaker, providing lectures and educational programs on various local/regional archaeological and local historical research projects and related topics. He is from Negaunee with Anishinaabe and French Metis heritage in addition to his passion for U.P. archaeology.

They will discuss the prehistory and history of Florence County and highlight the known archaeological sites in the county and the questions they pose to archaeologists. Their presentation will cover common ancient artifacts found in Florence County and how the public can help better understand the ancient Native American history of Florence County and get involved.

Attendees are encouraged to bring in their artifacts so Howell and Akemann can identify and date them. Items such as ancient pottery, stone tools, spearpoints, copper tools, knives, etc., or anything from more recent history, like fur trade items such as beads, gun parts, etc.

“If you think it is more than 100 years old, we’d like to see it and can tell you more about it,” said Wendy Gehlhoff, director of the Wild Rivers Interpretive Center & Gift Shop in Florence.

This particular program is provided with assistance from Brian and Christine Diel of Diel Insurance Group, The Florence County Historical Society and the Northwoods Geology Club. The Florence County monthly Outdoor Education programs are sponsored by the Friends of the Wild Rivers Interpretive Center and UW-Extension Florence County.