Ian Dyck worked as archaeologist, curator and program manager at the Saskatchewan Museum of Natural History (now Royal Saskatchewan Museum) and later at the National Museum of Man (subsequently Canadian Museum of Civilization, now Canadian Museum of History) until his retirement in 2010.

Born in 1865 in New England, Nickerson came of age when there were 29 people in North America earning their living as archeologists. (...) His body of research became posthumously influential in the development of institutional archaeology on this continent. He produced beautiful topological drawings and refined meticulous, grid-based excavation methods that are now the standard for modern archeology. (T)he drive to do science-to really do science, to let your curiosity subsume every other motivation and concern, to ignore all the signs practically screaming at you to do something else with your life-is something strange and rare. (This book) celebrate(s) that spirit, as well the glorious minutiae in which it finds sustenance. -- Patchen Barss "Going It Alone. The marvellous, single-minded, doggedly strange passion of citizen science," Literary Review of Canada, p. 21 "Born in 1865 in New England, Nickerson came of age when there were 29 people in North America earning their living as archeologists. Nickerson spent his life trying-and failing-to become the 30th. He never managed to secure a permanent position at a museum or university. And yet, his body of research-eked out during whatever time he could steal away from paying jobs in the railroad industry-became posthumously influential in the development of institutional archaeology on this continent. "Archaeology had become his obsession," Dyck writes. "He accepted unstable jobs in remote places that sometimes separated him from his family and sometimes left them short of funds. (T)he drive to do science-to really do science, to let your curiosity subsume every other motivation and concern, to ignore all the signs practically screaming at you to do something else with your life-is something strange and rare. (This book) celebrate(s) that spirit, as well the glorious minutiae in which it finds sustenance." - Patchen Barss, "Going It Alone. The marvellous, single-minded, doggedly strange passion of citizen science," Literary Review of Canada, January-February 2017, p. 21

• Abstract (v)Résumé (vi)Acknowledgements (xvii)Introduction (1)PART IA Life in ArchaeologyChapter 1Family Background and Education (11)Chapter 2Archaeology and its Intellectual Context, 1790 to 1890 (23)Chapter 3Field Work in Illinois and Ohio, 1884‑1885 (43)Chapter 4Life in Michigan with a Little Archaeology, 1886–1893 (59)Chapter 5First Five Years in Northwestern Illinois, 1893–1898 (75)Chapter 6Second Stretch in Northwest Illinois, 1898–1902 (95)Chapter 7Life in Chicago, 1902–1909 (115)Chapter 8Life in Kidder, 1909–1912 (147)Chapter 9Dreams of Full-Time Archaeology, 1912–1913 (163)Chapter 10Two Commissions and an Old Obligation, 1913–1914 (187)Chapter 11Sourisford and Snowflake, 1914–1915 (209)Chapter 12Valleys of the Assiniboine, Little Saskatchewan, and Whitemud Rivers, 1915–1916 (225)Chapter 13Cambria Village and Judson Mound, 1916–1917 (241)Chapter 14One Career Ends, the Other Fades, 1917–1922 (257)Chapter 15It Was Always Archaeology (267)Epilogue (275)Conclusion (281)PART IIAppendices—Reports from the FieldAppendix 1Nickerson’s Summary of Explorations in Northwest Illinois to September 1898 (293)Appendix 2Summary of Nickerson’s Archaeology, 1893–1902 (297)Appendix 3Letter Reports for the 1912 Manitoba Survey (303)Appendix 4Nickerson’s Letter Reports for 1913 Excavations, Jones Village Site, Cambria, Minnesota (319)Appendix 5Nickerson’s Letter Reports for 1913. Investigations at Sourisford, including the End-of-Season Summary Report (323)Appendix 6: Nickerson’s Special Report on 1914 Archaeology (329)Appendix 7: Nickerson’s Summary of 1914 Investigations for the GSC Annual Report (331)Appendix 8Progress Reports on Minnesota Archaeology, 1916 (333)Appendix 9Nickerson’s Analysis of Expenditures for September and October 1916 (341)Appendix 10Nickerson’s Answers to Libby’s Questions about North Antler Creek Sites (343)Bibliography (347)Index (367)