MAS Annual Meeting and Dinner

Come meet and socialize with your fellow MAS members, eat delicious food, and hear a fascinating lecture on September 26, 2025 by  Dave Cooper.

Lecture Title:  Freshwater (A Story of Boats, Archeology and Lake Superior)

Abstract: The Great Lakes have provided humans with a unique freshwater maritime environment for over 12,000 years, from the earliest Paleo-Indian hunters to the boatmen and sailors of the fur trade and Industrial Revolution. People have subsisted, traded, adapted and innovated to survive in this environment of cold and occasionally perilous waters, creating a fascinating and relatively well-preserved archeological record. Cooper will present aspects of his own career around and beneath Lake Superior, working as an archeologist and cultural resource manager for the state of Wisconsin and the National Park Service.

Bio: Dave Cooper’s archaeological career includes undergraduate fieldwork in British medieval archaeology, fieldwork on American Revolutionary War and Civil War sites, a decade with the Wisconsin state archaeologist’s office, a year assignment to the Naval Historical Center in Washington D.C., and 25 years with the National Park Service (NPS). His research interests include maritime archaeology (especially shipwrecks and aircraft wrecks) and historical archaeology, particularly the North American fur trade, light stations, and military sites. He is a graduate of University of Wisconsin-Madison and East Carolina University. Now retired, he divides his time between Bayfield, Wisconsin and Grand Portage, Minnesota, volunteering for the NPS, working as a NPS boat instructor and commercial skipper, and captaining a 50′ schooner out of Grand Marais, Minnesota.



Event Location:
Oliver Kelley Farm
15788 Kelley Farm Road
Elk River, MN 55330


Doors open at 5:30pm and Dinner Service begins at 6:00pm

Food Catered by Wanna Wota
Menu Includes: Buffalo Sandwich, Wild Rice Salad, Corn Soup, Fresh Fruit, Pumpkin Bars, Water/Coffee

Meeting begins at 7:00pm

Lecture begins at 7:30pm

Event ends at 8:15pm