A volunteer at the Mesa Verde site taught me more in 10 minutes than my degree did

Back in 2018 I was on a tour at Mesa Verde, just doing the usual walk through the cliff dwellings. Near the end, an older volunteer named Frank was standing by one of the kivas, not really giving a speech, just answering questions. I asked him something about how they think the roofs were supported, expecting a textbook answer. Instead he pointed at a small crack in the stone and showed me where the original beam holes were, then explained how they could tell the wood was juniper because of the char marks left from a fire. He said 'the site tells you what it was if you stop looking for what you want it to be.' That stuck with me for years. Has anyone else had a moment where a local or volunteer gave you a more useful insight than any lecture or paper ever did?

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king.dakota12d ago

You're really buying that 'the site tells you what it was' line? That's just a guy romanticizing his hobby. A degree gives you the context to question stuff, not just accept whatever a volunteer with a cool story says. Frank probably read the same textbook, he just made it sound deeper than it was.