The Find of a Thousand Lifetimes: The Story of the Gorto Site Discovery

James Robert Paquette is a native son of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and a 1974 Magna Cum Laude graduate of Northern Michigan University. Often times described as a ＂true modern-day Renaissance man,＂ Paquette’s passions are many. He is a successful freelance outdoor writer and photographer, an award winning labor journalist and editor, and the author of numerous published articles on relic and treasure hunting. He is an honored regional historian who has authored many news reports and historical articles for various local and regional media publications. Paquette is also a much sought after public speaker, and has provided frequent lectures and educational programs at universities, local schools, historical societies, and many other organizations. His greatest passion, however, is prehistoric archaeology. A self-taught avocational archaeologist, Paquette has worked on numerous professional archaeological site surveys and excavations, including the historic 1986-87 Deer Lake Gorto Site project. Recognized as one of the preeminent authorities on Late Paleo-Indian adaptations in the region, he has co-authored and published three major research reports on Great Lakes Late Paleo-Indian archaeology. Since 1984, Paquette has been conducting a ＂personal＂ ongoing archaeological field survey in the central U.P. for the purpose of locating, documenting, and preserving prehistoric Native American sites and artifacts. In the process of uncovering dozens of ancient sites in the rugged highlands of Marquette County, Paquette has documented the earliest archaeological evidence of human occupation in Michigan’s Lake Superior country. This treasured evidence provided Paquette with the necessary data that enabled him to prove that ancient Paleo-Indian peoples lived and hunted deep in the heart of the Upper Peninsula near the end of last Ice Age, perhaps some 12,000 years ago.