This text was obtained via automated optical character recognition.
It has not been edited and may therefore contain several errors.

---

WINTERVILLE, continued from p. 1
spot for family gatherings and cookouts. Trees, brush, and other intrusive vegetation will be cleared from the large mounds and plazas, new interpretive signage will be installed, and two new walking trails will be created. Improvements will be made to the pavilion and grounds at the front of the park, including the installation of new benches and grills and landscaping that will focus on native plants.
“Winterville Mounds is a National Historic Landmark, a designation reflecting the country’s highest level of cultural heritage significance,” said Winterville archaeologist Mark Dingledein. “As such, the methods used to remove the trees and grind the stumps will be sensitive to the nature of the site.”
“Work will begin on the grounds around the museum in the next weeks,” said Winterville Mounds director Mark Howell. “A new entrance sign along the highway will help raise the visibility of the site, and the fresh plantings will boost our curb appeal.” Once that landscaping phase is finished, vegetation removal will begin on the plazas and eventually move to the mounds.
Once the property has been cleared to resemble how it would have looked when it was in active use by Native Americans, a planned trail along its perimeter will be constructed to give visitors a new perspective on the scale of earthworks at the site. “It’s estimated that more dirt was moved to create the two plazas than to create the two dozen mounds,” Howell said. “We will also add a number of new signs to the seven that were installed five years ago.”
Long-term plans for Winterville Mounds include a new museum that will explore the
lives of Mississippi’s American Indians. Winterville Mounds is located at 2415 Highway 1 North, Greenville. The park and museum are open free of charge from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and Sunday from 1:30 to 5 p.m. For more information call 662-334-4684 or see the website, www.mdah. state.ms.us.
Awards Given for Documenting, Preserving History
Winners of this year’s Mississippi Historical Records Advisory Board (MHRAB) Awards for Excellence were announced at the biennial meeting of the Society of Mississippi Archivists at USM Gulf Coast in Long Beach on April 16.
Angela Stewart, archivist at the Margaret Walker Center at Jackson State University, and Ray L. Bellande, independent researcher in Ocean Springs, received the Mississippi Historical Records Advisory Board’s Award for Excellence in Documenting Mississippi’s History.
Since 2004 Stewart has overseen the digitization of much of Margaret Walker’s more than 35,000 personal papers and prepared for public use collections ranging from papers from the Black Panthers to U.S. Secretary of Education
Rod Paige. She is currently preparing the personal papers of black studies scholar Julius Thompson, who focused much of his research on the black press in Mississippi.
“Angela has spent her career committed to documenting Mississippi’s history and making sure that as many people as possible can access that history,” said Robert Luckett, director of the Margaret Walker Center. “She is an exemplary archivist, colleague, and teacher.”
Bellande created two websites, Biloxi Historical Society and Ocean Springs Archives, and is a frequent contributor to findagrave. com. He is also the author of four books, including The Bellande Cemetery: A History and Register, and numerous articles, including a weekly history series in the Ocean
Springs Record.
“Ray has been a constant and precise authority for the documentation of Mississippi’s historical facts,” said Julie Suarez, Mississippi Coast Historical and Genealogical Society president. “I hope that this acknowledgment of Ray’s amazing contributions will encourage others to follow his example.”
Joshua Rogers, teacher at Presbyterian Christian School in Hattiesburg, received the Award for Excellence in the Use of Historical Records in Grades K-12 for incorporating a variety of rare books written in Latin and bringing students to the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi to view texts in the Special Collections.
Mississippi University for Women’s department of history, political science,
and geography received the Award for Excellence in Use of Historical Records in Higher Education. Faculty members Amber Handy and Erin Kempker organized special student projects including “Civil War: 150 Posters” and “Presentations and Introduction to Historical Thinking and Research.” The department also offered opportunities for students to work directly with archival material.
MHRAB and MDAH established the awards program to encourage efforts to identify, preserve, and provide access to Mississippi’s hist'orical records. MHRAB activities are made possible by funding from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. For more information email MHRAB@ mdah.state.ms.us.