Edward B. Jelks

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Edward B. Jelks (Edward Baker Jelks) (September 10, 1922 – December 22, 2021) was an American archaeologist known for his work in historical archaeology and for helping shape the profession.

Born in Macon, Georgia, Jelks spent his early years in Florida and Texas. He entered the University of Texas at Austin in 1939, studied pre-med and zoology, and joined the Navy after Pearl Harbor. He served in Guadalcanal, helped develop a field hospital, contracted malaria, and later received Officer Training in New Zealand. After the war, he returned to UT Austin, earned a BA in English, and began an MA in anthropology, focusing on North American archaeology and Texas prehistory. He completed his MA in 1952 and later earned a PhD in archaeology in 1965.

Jelks directed the River Basin Surveys in Texas from 1951 to 1965, working on both prehistoric and historic sites. He studied the 17th–18th century villages of the southern Wichita tribes and Spanish colonial sites, and conducted research at places like the Stansbury Site in Texas. He also worked on projects at Jamestown and Yorktown in the mid-1950s.

In 1965–1968, Jelks taught archaeology of Texas at Southern Methodist University and conducted Summers with Parks Canada in Newfoundland. He played a key role in founding the Society for Historical Archaeology and served as its second president in 1968. In the same year, he moved to Illinois State University, where he built the anthropology program and led fieldwork, including excavations related to La Salle’s Fort St. Louis at Starved Rock, Illinois.

Jelks helped identify the first site of the French Fort de Chatres in Illinois in 1983 with Carl Ekberg. He also conducted digs at the Grand Village of the Kickapoo in Illinois, the De Brum copra plantation in Micronesia, and the Bar-B-C Dude Ranch in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming. He retired in 1983.

Edward Jelks died in Denver, Colorado, on December 22, 2021, at the age of 99. In 1988 he received the J. C. Harrington Award from the Society for Historical Archaeology for his contributions to the field.