When amateur archaeologist Bob Oshnock stumbled upon the Giesey site along Loyalhanna Creek in 1967, he immediately recognized a treasure.
The freshwater mussel shells, pottery shards, and stone spear points spoke to over 8,000 years of continuous human settlement.
This wasn’t just any archaeological site but a precious window directly into Pennsylvania’s deep indigenous past.
The Giesey site contained layer upon layer of history from past eras. The top strata held evidence of Monongahela tribal life from 1200-1400 AD. But probing deeper revealed artifacts over eight millennia old – including projectile points dated to 6300 BC.
It was a remarkably intact and stratified record of Woodland Period peoples spanning thousands of years along the creek.
Despite its immense archaeological potential, Giesey sat vulnerable to Pennsylvania’s march of progress. As modern development boomed in the Loyalhanna Creek valley, the fate of this sensitive site grew uncertain.
But one woman stepped in to save these ancient American Indian sites before the bulldozers could arrive.
Heiress Cordelia Scaife May caught wind of the site and stepped in to help.
Cordelia Scaife May had already quietly used much of her inheritance to purchase thousands of acres across the country to protect them from development.
In 1951, she established the Laurel Foundation, a private foundation based in Pittsburgh. Later, in 1996, she founded Colcom Foundation, serving as the chairman of both until her death. These foundations became vehicles for her charitable contributions, focusing on land conservation, watershed protection, environmental education, and ecological overshoot.
Cordelia Scaife May was committed to her native Pittsburgh, supporting initiatives like the Pittsburgh National Aviary, the Riverlife Task Force, the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, and the Women’s Center & Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh.
In 2004, Cordelia Scaife May generously donated the 10-acre stretch along Loyalhanna Creek containing the Giesey site to the nonprofit Archaeology Conservancy, in addition to another smaller site nearby.
Based in New Mexico, this organization is dedicated specifically to preserving undisturbed archaeological sites of historical significance, like the ancient American Indian village.
Thanks to Cordelia Scaife May’s timely actions, the vibrant Native history along these creek banks will endure. The oral traditions, ceremonies, hunts, and village life of past peoples imprinted upon this floodplain have escaped erasure. Giesey will stand indefinitely as a memorial to the first Pennsylvanians who called this corner of Loyalhanna home for over 80 centuries.
While most philanthropic donations come with pomp and circumstance, heiress Cordelia Scaife May’s gift came with no request for recognition.
The Conservation was tasked with keeping the location of the site secret to deter treasure-hunting raids.
We’re buying them and then mostly just leaving them alone. Not digging up anything,” Bob Oshnock told the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.
“We are quiet on purpose,” Joe Navari, the Conservancy’s Midwest Division associate director told the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. “We don’t seek publicity. We’re a preservation group. We never dig things up, per se. … We want to learn from these places but leave them as undisturbed as possible.”
Yet this quiet gesture will have a resounding impact through the ages.
Oshnock noted, “We are losing heritage sites at an alarming rate, but now Giesey will remain untouched – a perfect time capsule for future generations.”
No excavation crews will be digging through its buried cultural riches. Instead, the thousands of stone tools, spear points, and household remnants will rest undisturbed.
Although Cordelia Scaife May’s name may not grace any plaque on this land she spared from destruction, she carried the knowledge that she had not just preserved an ancient cultural site; she had protected it from bounty hunters who would have desecrated the memory of the souls who once hunted, loved, and lived in her beloved Pennsylvania.
With multi-million dollar homes coming up all around, this land will rest in peace, thanks to the generosity of a woman who had fought urbanization and the destruction of nature all her life.
Unsung and anonymous, this donation of the late heiress’ does not get much press coverage– and that is how she would have preferred it. The Conservancy securely cradles Giesey’s legacy in obscurity.
Thanks to the generosity of Cordelia Scaife May, the original inhabitants of this beautiful stretch of land will rest peacefully, their history preserved.
Learn more about the life of Cordelia Scaife May here: https://about.me/cordeliascaifemay
