Lessons for Historical Archaeology from the Career of W. Raymond Wood

When I first expressed interest in presenting a paper at the 2004 Society for American Archae ology symposium honoring W. Raymond Wood, I struggled with selecting a paper topic. I certainly did not have anything new to contribute to Plains archaeology or ethnohistory or in any of the other geographic or topical areas in which he has worked (to illustrate how I have followed successfully in his footsteps). After much introspection into how my own career as an anthropologically trained his torical archaeologist has developed, I decided to share some of my ideas about Ray Wood's impact on historical archaeology. It is partly a personal story, but I think it is much more. I imagine that most of those who have been influenced by Ray Wood have similar stories. Many of his students went on to specialize in the anthropology and ar chaeology of the Plains, but his impact has gone beyond one geographic region.