Archaeologist
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Education: M.A., Cultural Resources Management, Sonoma State University, 2000; B.A., Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1991
Professional Registration: Registered Professional Archaeologist (since 2000)
Education: 31 years in archaeology, 19 years with ASC
MARK SELVERSTON meets the Secretary of Interior’s Standards for Prehistoric and Historical Archaeology. He is the project manager responsible for quality assurance, personnel, budgets, and compliance of three multi-year investigations: (1) the Malakoff Diggins–North Bloomfield Historic District Remediation Project, which will inventory and evaluate the world’s most renowned hydraulic gold mine; (2) the Saddleback Ranch Cultural Resources Research Project, which draws students and professionals together to inventory and study Browns Valley Ridge, Yuba County; and (3) the Empire Mine Historic District Remediation Project, involving survey, evaluation, and treatment of remains of California’s hard-rock gold-mining history in the Empire Mine State Historic Park and updating the property’s National Register of Historic Places listing while the State executes remediation projects. He also manages inventory and testing projects at Sierra District state parks, including Bodie, Burton Creek, Emerald Bay, and Plumas Eureka.
Mr. Selverston has 31 years of experience as project manager, director, crew chief, and field technician on prehistoric and historic-era surveys and excavations in Butte, El Dorado, Los Angeles, Mono, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Riverside, San Benito, San Diego, Sonoma, Santa Barbara, Tuolumne, Ventura, and Yuba counties, California. He specializes in the Sierra Nevada, especially gold-mining resources from sites to landscapes. From 1992 to 1996 he coordinated, provided technical assistance, and directed portions of evaluation studies on 39 historic sites, and data recovery of 9 of them, for the Metropolitan Water District’s Eastside Reservoir Project, using recovered data to address research design themes. Mr. Selverston directed survey and testing of hundreds of historic-era sites for the Oroville Facilities Relicensing Project, Butte County. He has worked in Chiapas, Mexico; Laetoli, Tanzania; and at the Northwest Information Center of the California Historical Resources Information System for three years as Records Search Coordinator. His MA focused on excavating an adobe homestead on an early Russian colony in Sonoma County and preservation of cultural resources on private property. He has authored, co-authored, or contributed to over 55 technical reports, and has presented 9 papers at professional meetings, including those of the Society for California Archaeology, the Society for Historical Archaeology, and at the Great Basin Anthropological Conference. Mr. Selverston has completed the CAL-OSHA approved Hazardous Waste Site Worker’s Health and Safety Training program with annual 8-hour refresher courses.