The U.S. National Park Service’s research, technology, and training center based in Natchitoches will open up its doors to the public Thursday offering an inside look at the preservation research projects undertaken by graduate students this summer.
The National Center for Preservation Technology and Training (NCPTT) is an office of the National Park Service. NCPTT's materials conservator Jason Church is currently testing rust convertors to restore ironwork and helping seven summer interns advance their projects.
“We’re a nationwide research center, but we’re located here. Come see what we’re doing here in your own backyard and also what the U.S. National Park Service and groups like that are doing in your backyard. Sometimes people don’t realize the resources they have here,” Church said.
Matthew Pailes recently received his doctorate from the University of Arizona. He came to NCPTT to help with petrography work. He’s gathered samples from stone quarries and built an online database of rock descriptions that could be used for rehabilitation projects.
“We have these modern stone materials that people can gain access to through the commercial markets. We want to write descriptions of these commercial stones that will be useful to people who are trying make decisions about finding the right materials to repair different kinds of structures. My job is to basically write those descriptions based on the microscope work,” Pailes said.
Christina Ramazani is finishing her master’s in applied anthropology at Mississippi State. She came to NCPTT to study surveillance technology techniques at historic sites. But she’s met obstacles: many historic sites don’t want to talk openly about how they monitor federal land.
“They think if they publish that on the Internet it puts that resource in danger. People will know what’s under surveillance and what’s not under surveillance. So, it’s kind of like this Catch-22. We need to talk about what’s working and what’s not [working]. But nobody wants to do that,” Ramazani said, who is planning a poster presentation of different technologies, like drones and trail cameras.
The event will be held Thursday, July 30, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at NCPTT’s headquarters in Lee H. Nelson Hall on the Northwestern State University campus.
The event will include other presenters, including the Association for the Preservation of Historic Natchitoches discussing work underway to preserve Africa House at Melrose Plantation.
This is the 16th annual event and is held in conjunction with Natchitoches-area National Park Service organizations.
