An acquaintenance of mine was surprised to learn that famed modern art painter, Jackson Pollock attended school at Janesville. The other day, I was thinking about a well known archaeologist who attended school at Missouri Bend, some three miles from Janesville. There the similarities stop.
In 1926, Harry S. Riddell moved his family to a small farm north and east of Janesville. Riddell, an engineer, was hired by the Baxter Creek & Tule Irrigation Districts to see if he could come up with a solution with the problems surrounding the Bly Tunnel at Eagle Lake. His two sons, only barely a year apart, Harry and Francis attended the Missouri Bend School. The two boys started noticing arrowheads on the school grounds. They were fascinated by this other finds of Native American artifacts. In 1936, the family moved to Sacramento. Both Harry and Francis studied and became archeologists. Harry was the low-key of the two. Before I go any farther, Francis was best to known to his colleagues and friends as Fritz. However, he was always Francis to me.
Francis became the first archeologist to be hired by the State of California, first as a curator of the California State Indian Museum. Later, he went to work in the Department of Parks & Recreation. In 1948, he began to participate in archaeological surveys throughout the state, using a standardize form, something unheard at the time.
Francis had a special fondness for the Honey Lake Valley and the Indians there. He was involved with the archaeological excavations of Karlo and Tommy Tucker Cave. Francis did not stop there. He had a passion for Indian Ethnography to better understand his work. As Francis commented, “I could not separate the past from the present.” During the late 1940s and 1950s, Riddell, along with colleague Bill Evans would compile the Ethnographic History of the Honey Lake Maidu and the Honey Lake Paiute. A very valuable document, indeed.
Not only was Riddell was highly regarded in California archaeology, but for his work in Peru. Riddell even invited me to partake in one of his Peruvian expeditions. Alas, I had to decline due to a lack of funds.