Another Person Thinks the Toyota Tacoma is a Great Overlander

Yet another person concludes that the Toyota Tacoma QuadCab pickup truck is the best (new) vehicle for overlanding.

The Tacoma has been the gold standard for people who want a small off road truck for decades and while the “all new” model leaves a little to be desired in terms of keeping up with the new and strong competition as a whole, its missions specific dominance remains unchallenged. The Tacoma is right blend of capability and cost for maximum value to the overland traveler

2016 Toyota Tacoma TRD OffRoad QuadCab. Source: Toyota
2016 Toyota Tacoma TRD OffRoad QuadCab. Source: Toyota

Unalaska Animal Bones May Get Dumped

Well, this could turn out badly. Hopefully the zooarchaeologist is using hyperbole to encourage Fish and Wildlife to figure out their own rules.

If a “huge” load of scientifically valuable prehistoric animal bones aren’t returned soon to the Museum of the Aleutians, they may end up in the trash in Canada, according to a frustrated scientist in Victoria, British Columbia, who is encountering tax problems while trying to avoid international legal difficulties.

It turns out that the $6,000 set aside for shipping three shrink-wrapped pallets of nearly a half million bones back to Unalaska is causing  financial headaches for the private research firm, Pacific Identifications, according to zoologist and treasurer Susan Crockford.

“We had to pay taxes on these funds to carry them forward to this year. We are unwilling to pay taxes on these funds for yet another year,” Crockford said in an email to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “It means that if we cannot get the import permit required to ship the material by August of this year at the latest, we face having to do something unconscionable to professional archaeologists and research scientists: send all 57 boxes to the dump.”

Most likely, no federal permits are needed, according to Andrea Medeiros, a Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman in Anchorage, since the bones came from Native corporation land, and not federal property, under the terms of the Archaeological Resources Protection Act. However, Fish and Wildlife Service officials were still reviewing the requirements of international treaties involving endangered species and migratory birds.

Read the rest at Alaska Dispatch News

Archaeology Images from Peterson Farm, Minnesota

The University of Minnesota is conducting a field school at a historic site in Carver County first occupied in 1855 by Swedish-American farmer Andrew Peterson. Local newspaper the Chaska Herald has a photo essay showing the site and the tools of the trade.

Bucket of trowels
Source: Mark W. Olson, The Chaska Herald