James Mett Shippee

[whitedog]

Does anyone here remember the MO archaeologist and historian named Mett Shippee? If you have and if you have any news aricles, photogrphs or stories about him, I'd like to hear from you. Thanks, Fred Gaarde, Metts grandson.
bshiplar1@aol.com

[marduk]

J. Mett Shippee, who spent more than 70 years of life researching Indian cultures to become the leading archaeologist in this area for several decades, is dead at the age of 89 on March 26, 1985.

Mr. Shippee, a millwright, became an amateur archaeology in 1915, at the age of 19. He opened the Kansas City area to national attention on Indian studies.

Archaeologists from the Smithsonian Institute came to Kansas City in 1937 to look into the enormous wealth of Indian material that lay in every direction from the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri rivers. They not only found a treasure of artifacts but they found Mr. Shippee.

The Northlander guided them in their search and excelled in the field so well that he went on become one of them. For the next 40 years, he was to work the length of the Missouri River Valley from Illinois to the Northwest for the [Smithsonian] Institute and the University of Missouri.

A World War I Navy veteran, Mr. Shippee credited oneof his finest moments with a ceremony in 1983 in whic Park College presented him an honorary doctorate degree in science. He had nevered received a college degree but had earned his way with his collegues in archaeology through his years in the field, his discoveries and contributions to archaeology.

Mr. Shippee arrived in Kasnas City in 1907 at teh age of 11. He was born March 6, 1896, in Greenleaf, Kansas. Kansas City depended on Mr. Shippee for much of the work that brought the Hopewell Museum (no longer maintained by the county) and Indian archaeological digging site to Line Creek Park. Mr. Shippee had discovered a significant number of artifacts at the site during the 1930s. Bulldozers ripped through the site to install sewer lines and some of the site was salvaged, some lost, and a portion eventually protected.

[Charlie Hatchett]

A World War I Navy veteran, Mr. Shippee credited one of his finest moments with a ceremony in 1983 in which Park College presented him an honorary doctorate degree in science.

He had nevered received a college degree but had earned his way with his collegues in archaeology through his years in the field, his discoveries and contributions to archaeology.

Nothing like firsthand observation. It's a rare occurrence, and such wealth of knowledge, accidental as it may be, should be awarded, when pursued. This is a system in which I could allign myself.

[whitedog]

Marduk, thankyou Very Much for that information! Gramps would've been a little embarased by all of it & a bit proud too. He started taking me out with him into the field when I was six. I even remember going through the back dirt piles at Line Creek while he was excavating a feature. That's when I found a beautiful corner notch point about four inches long. Did you ever get a chance to meet him? I used to go with him to the Kansas City Museum's award ceremonies where he would occassionaly recieve some sort of plaque. At these, I got to meet Mr. Cousteau and his son Phillipe. Even Walley Shera the astronaut, Thor Hyerdal and Leaky. Gramps liked telling of the day he was approached by a young man when he was in Sedalia Missouri buying croceries while cunducting a dig just outside of town. That was 1954 or 55. The young man had heard that there was an archaeological team doing research on a nearby site and he went over to where gramps was eating lunch. The fellow was extremely interested in archaeology and was quite knowlegeble on the subject. The young man's name was Charlton Heston. He was in town with his manager, signing autographs for people in front of a theater that was showing a movie that he'd just finished called The Secret Of The Incas. Gramps said "That was when he was just a pup actor" He and gramps got along so well, they talked for over an hour and a half, until Mr. Heston's manager came over and told him that he'd better get back to the theater and start signing more autographs for the girls who were by now starting to flock around. He told my grandpa to "Just call me Chuck". Gramps was impressed with Mr. Heston's genuine interest in the subject of archaeology.