TUNNELL, CURTIS DALE (1934 ~ 2001). Curtis Dale Tunnell, archeologist, preservationist, oral historian, and folklorist, was born in Turkey, Hall County, Texas on January 24, 1934. Upon going to West Texas State College, in Canyon, Tunnell's interests in geology, paleontology, and anthropology were already developing.

At West Texas, Tunnell worked in the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, one of the leading archeological research centers in the state. There, he met his lifelong mentor, Jack Hughes. Together, they covered vast areas of the Texas Panhandle, conducting archeological investigations on rock shelters, pit burials, bison kill sites, and countless other projects.

While in college, Tunnell participated in military training through Officers Candidate School. Upon graduation he joined the U.S. Navy and saw service in the Pacific, ferrying supplies to such outposts as Johnston Island, the Midway Islands, and the Marshalls. His ship, the USS Kishwaukee, was also involved in early atomic bomb testing at the Bikini and Enewetak atolls.

Following military service, Tunnell returned to Texas and began working with archeologist Ed Jelks on the Texas Rivers Basin Survey project funded by the Smithsonian Institution. Their first investigations took place along the McGee Bend of the Angelina River in East Texas, later impounded as part of Sam Rayburn Reservoir. He also worked in the Lake Amistad area along the Rio Grande.

Tunnell followed his fieldwork with graduate studies at The University of Texas at Austin, receiving a master's degree in anthropology. From there, he became a field researcher for the University of Illinois and worked on such sites as the famed Cahokia Mounds, as well as projects in Kansas and Arizona. He then returned to Austin as Curator of Anthropology for the Texas Memorial Museum. There, he and W. W. Newcomb undertook pioneering work at a site that proved to be the location of Mission San Lorenzo de la Santa Cruz, established by the Spanish in 1762 to minister to the Lipan Apache.

In 1965, public demand for historic and archeological preservation led the Texas Legislature to create the position of State Archeologist. For the first time, Texas had a formal public archeology program, and the person selected to fill the new position was Curtis Tunnell. First assigned to the Texas State Building Commission, the State Archeologist was transferred to the Texas State Historical Survey Committee (later the Texas Historical Commission) in 1969.

As State Archeologist, Tunnell participated in scientific investigations at the Alamo and other important Spanish Colonial mission and presidio sites in Texas, directed archeological excavations at the ancient Folsom-age Adair-Steadman site, and braved the waters of the Rio Grande in order to record the archeological resources present in the canyons of the Big Bend region. He battled commercial salvagers to retain the 1554 Spanish shipwreck artifacts for the State of Texas and was instrumental in the development of the Antiquities Code of Texas, the legal tool to protect historic resources on public (state) land, including submerged shipwrecks.

His films and audiotapes documenting the work of numerous folk artisans and craftsmen in the Texas-Mexico border region may well represent the only records of the practitioners of many vanishing crafts and arts. In 1981, Tunnell became THC executive director, a position he held until his retirement in January 1999.

Through his decades of state service, Tunnell traveled to all 254 Texas counties and developed lasting friendships in all regions of the state. Tunnell passed away suddenly at his home on April 13, 2001.

Information taken from obituary, Austin American-Statesman, April 20, 2001. Additional information available through the Texas State Cemetery research department.