Mark U. Wilde-Ramsing, Project Director, was born in Oakland, California and moved to Alexandria, Virginia when he was nine and where he graduated from T.C. Williams High School. After attending Wake Forest University, Mark sought a career in archaeology and eventually was hired to lead an archaeological site survey of New Hanover County, North Carolina. In 1978 Mark took a permanent position with the North Carolina Underwater Archaeology Branch where he developed their submerged cultural resource management program. During his career with the state, Mark has surveyed many miles of North Carolina waters, supervised the investigations of countless submerged resources from preliminary examinations to salvage recovery - dugout canoes to 20th Century steamers, and written numerous position papers regarding their management. These include placing twenty-one Civil War shipwrecks on the National Register of Historic Places as a thematic district, organizing professional workshops to develop guidelines for the protection of small, indigenous craft, developing the Branch's inventory of archaeological and historic shipwrecks, which now includes nearly 6000 entries, and compiling a bibliography of all research related to maritime cultural resources in North Carolina waters. During these endeavors Mark sought input not only from marine archaeologists, historians and conservators, but those from many related fields, particularly physical sciences such as marine geology and coastal geography, which provide the environmental foundation upon which to interpret the archaeological record. He also relied heavily on local informants and watermen. Over the last decade Mark focused on public education by developing outreach programs to raise awareness of the activities and goals of archaeology. A few years ago, after the discovery of the shipwreck of what is believed to be the pirate Blackbeard's sunken flagship, Queen Anne's Revenge, Mark was appointed director of project operations and was transferred to Carteret County to oversee one of the most significant and exciting underwater discoveries in recent times. A graduate of Wake Forest University and the Catholic University of America, Mark is currently enrolled in East Carolina University's PhD program in Cultural Resources Management.
