Archaeological Staff
Drayton Archaeological Research staff includes a principal investigator, project managers and field technicians with a wide range of pertinent archaeological skills, all with extensive experience in Washington and Pacific Northwest archaeology. Our senior staff meets the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Professional Archaeology as defined in 36 CFR 61.
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Garth L. Baldwin, M.A., RPA  |
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Originally from Blaine Washington, Garth grew up near Drayton Harbor, a small saltwater bay that opens into the Strait of Georgia. The bay is where the company’s name was derived. Blaine is situated in northwest Washington along the coast and US / Canadian Border. After a tour of duty in the United States Marine Corps from 1988-1992, Garth earned a B.A. and M.A in Anthropology (2001 & 2003) from Western Washington University (WWU) in Bellingham. The subject of his thesis was Paleolithic archaeology from the Caucasian Mountains of Russia. Since then work has been closer to home, like coastal shell matrix sites. Garth has had the privilege to work in numerous precontact burial sites performing what can be called “Industrial Recovery” after construction projects have inadvertently disturbed cemeteries and individual burials. He has conducted and participated in investigations on the eastern Washington plateau. As part of keeping DAR in the forefront of archaeological research, Garth has been training in Underwater Archaeology and PADI SCUBA to offer underwater services for marine, ferry, bridge and other aquatic projects complete CRM compliance. Garth worked as an archaeologist with the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) for three years (2004-2007). When he left the WSDOT, Garth was the principal archeologist in charge of NEPA compliance for Section 106 projects at the Highways and Local Programs Division. His particular skills include spatial analysis, shell matrix excavation, tribal consultation, burial recovery and assessment, and mediation. |
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Camille A Mather, M.A., RPA |
| Camille Alvis Mather grew up in rural Whatcom County. She spent her childhood rambling in the woods, fields and gullies of her ‘backyard’ that often extended many county roads over. Her artist and naturalist father strongly shaped who she became, taking her for long walks in the woods, teaching sketching and plant and animal identification. After finishing Bellingham High School in 1996 where track and cross-country were her life, she pursued degrees from Whatcom Community College (1998) and Western Washington University, graduating with a B.A. in Anthropology/Archaeology in 2000. The following years were filled with wildland firefighting with Baker River Hotshots (2001), living out of a truck rock climbing the western U.S., working as an archaeologist with the Lummi Nation (2002), moving to Colorado and working for San Juan National Forest as an archaeologist/fire archaeologist (2003), succeeding to lead archaeologist at Lummi Nation (2004), working both full time and by contract with various CRM firms (2005-2008), and getting married to Josh in April 2005, her love and best friend she met in Geology class at WWU in 1999. Camille received her M.A. from WWU in spring 2009, completing a thesis on 45SK46 located at Deception Pass, WA, analyzing the settlement type represented in the faunal and artifact remains excavated at a field school that she participated in as an undergraduate. She temporarily moved to Kettle Falls, WA for the summer of 2009 and worked for the National Park Service at Roosevelt Lake NRA. Camille now lives in Bellingham with her husband and two dogs, Nissa and Faelan, and loves backpacking, camping, skiing, cooking, gardening, and studying the magnificent Northwest Coast. |
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Brett Meidinger, M.A., |
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Born and raised on the northern plains, Brett spent her formative years digging in the sandbox and exploring the frontier. She began her career in archaeology the summer after high school in 1997, where she assisted in data recovery at the Scattered Village site in Mandan, ND. She spent summers working in eight states traveling throughout the great basin, northern plains and the plateau. She earned her B.A. in Anthropology from Minnesota State University-Moorhead in 2002 and began working full time in CRM. Working at several Paleo sites along the Missouri River, Brett developed an interest in early indigenous plant use. Brett moved to Bellingham Washington for graduate school and received her M.A. from Western Washington University in 2008. The focus of her thesis was facility and archaeobotanical analysis at the Ferndale site (45WH34), in northwestern Washington. While she specializes in paleoethnobotany, Brett also has extensive experience analyzing lithics from sites on the plateau and the northwest coast. Although her passion is plant procurement and processing she also focuses her studies on experimental archaeology. Currently, Brett is the lab director and an archaeologist at DAR. She also teaches Northwest Coast Ethnobotany at Whatcom Community College (WCC) in the spring. When not at work, Brett is tearing up the track playing roller derby with the Bellingham Roller Betties under the alias Eva Apocalypse. |
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Robert A. Warbus
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Robert (Bob) is from Lummi Nation, Washington. He has been working with and around archaeologists for the past 11 years. Not academically educated, Bob has been formally trained by Tribal Elders, Practitioners of Native Traditions and by his years of on-the-job training in CRM and archaeological recovery. Bob brings a special perspective and exemplary skills as field crew and laboratory assistance to DAR. He is the proud father of four sons, two of which are twin toddlers. |
