Our thanks goes to Lenard Ziegler for his Donation to the Smithsonian, the National Museum of Natural History, Chapter 14 would like to thank and recognize Lenard Ziegler for his life long love and achievement of collecting native and colonial artifacts. Lenard has been collecting artifacts dating back to 10,000 plus years from a small 22 acre Clyde Speck’s Farm since 1954 which is known now as the Plenge site. This collection has represented a long time line of Warren County, New Jersey history. Since the time of retreating ice glaciers and extinct animals that roamed the lands to the formation of the colonies we now know as the United States, Lenard has collected 14,520 pieces of artifacts. Plenge Site is a rare site for the fact that it hosts many Paleo point styles of the Paleo period such as Clovis, Cumberland, to Crowfield. There is also a collection from Plenge Site which consists of many Archaic points, hammer stones, tools and debitage, which was generously donated by Lenard to the Smithsonian Institution.
In the photos we will see fellow and friend of Lenard, Dr. Joseph Gingerich. Dr. Gingerich has done research on the Plenge Site for the last several years and is an archeologist from Raleigh, North Carolina State University. Dr. Gingerich and Lenard are meeting with Archeologist Dr. Dennis J. Stanford. Dr. Stanford is curator of North and South Paleolithic collections and Director of the Smithsonian’s Paleoindian/Paleoecology Program for the Smithsonian. Dr. Stanford has at this time, taking the collection of the plenge site artifacts for future generations to view and research in our nation’s capital.
James Wosochlo
Chapter 14