The Prairie Archaeology & Research full-time professional staff provides our clients with decades of combined experience in archaeology, history, and cultural resource management.
Joseph Craig (email) is President and Principal Investigator of Prairie Archaeology & Research. He is a graduate of Northern Illinois University and has almost twenty years of experience in all aspects of cultural resource investigations including acting as point of contact, contract administrator and principal investigator. Mr. Craig oversees all aspects of the pre-fieldwork research, field and laboratory investigations, and report production conducted by Prairie Archaeology & Research staff. Mr. Craig also manages and directs the investigations of outside consultants whose expertise may be necessary to complete the project.
Mr. Craig has extensive experience in conducting all phases of cultural resource investigations in the upper Midwest including Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. In addition to this primary experience, he acted as Principal Investigator of cultural resource investigations for projects in Nevada, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Michigan, Virginia, Vermont and New Hampshire.
Jason Rein (email) oversees all spatial data operations for PAR and produces its graphical assets. Mr. Rein's mapping tasks range from total station and drone operation to GIS and CAD production to finalized report-ready figures using personally-developed software. In addition, he maintains the company's visual branding, develops and maintains the company web site, database infrastructure and research tools as needed, is responsible for producing PAR's public outreach projects, and designs and constructs field equipment when new solutions are needed.
Mr. Rein joined Prairie Archaeology & Research in 2005, bringing digital and mechanical knowledge along with over eight years of archaeological experience conducting field, surveying, and lab work. Mr. Rein has participated in numerous prehistoric and historic archaeological survey, evaluation, and mitigation projects in Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Kentucky.
Kat Pruitt (email) is an archaeologist at Prairie Archaeology & Research. She graduated summa cum laude from the Capital Scholars Honors Program at the University of Illinois at Springfield in 2021 with a degree in Anthropology, having minored in Theatre and Women & Gender Studies.
She joined Prairie Archaeology & Research in 2021 and assists in the production and research of reports, field investigations, and general tomfoolery.
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