Began pursuing a Bachelors of Anthropology with a specialty in Archeology

 After graduating from Overton High School in 1967, Holen began pursuing a Bachelors of Anthropology with a specialty in Archeology. That same year Kowalski graduated from St. Paul High School and went to work before being drafted into the U.S. Army in Sept. of 1969. While Holen worked as an arborist to pay for college, Kowalski began his career as a mechanic long before working in the motor pool along Vietnam’s Landing Zone. 

“When I returned from Vietnam, I worked for Custer County as a heavy equipment operator before joining the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation,” Kowalski remembered. Before working with the Bureau of Reclamation, Kowalski recalls being constantly intrigued with his surroundings and always noting unique features in the landscape, thereby earning him the nickname “Hawkeye.” After joining the reclamation team, he took soil samples and was introduced to notable archeologists like Holen.

Holen admits his introduction to computer engineering jobs came as a child where he gathered rocks, arrowheads and while studying the history of an 1864 Plum Creek Indian Massacre of settlers that were traveling across the Oregon Trail on property he grew up on and currently owns. “Employees from the Parks Service found a mass grave, burned wagons and six sets of Oregon trail ruts,” Holen added. “That, along with comments from my dad regarding how I should be an archeologist, not a farmer led me down this path.”