Jon Glass is an alum of the CHRM program, having received his master's degree in 2021. His thesis is titled Pilot Town at Navy Cove: Unplanned Utopia. Thesis Abstract: Pilot Town is a former commune-style settlement in Alabama that began around the 1830s. This community, described by many as utopian, consisted of generations of outer bar boat pilots and their families. For nearly a century this community occupied a small peninsula and cove near the mouth of the Mobile Bay before being destroyed by a hurricane in 1906. What makes Pilot Town utopian? And how does it compare to the various utopian settlements attempted in the United States during the same time period? Several more well-known utopian case studies are explored further here to better understand what defines a utopia and why the lower Alabama pilot village is thought of in this way. This research reviews and analyzes the archival record, collaborates with the descendant community, and includes a review of the existing archaeological record to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of Pilot Town as a utopia.

Following below is an archived profile.

Jon Glass is a graduate student in the Cultural and Heritage Resource Management (CHRM) master’s program. As an anthropology undergraduate student, Mr. Glass began practicing cultural resource management in 2000. Since that time, he has participated in thousands of archaeological survey, testing, monitoring, and data recovery projects throughout the southeastern United States. Glass owns and operates a cultural resources management consulting firm on the Alabama Gulf Coast, conducting hundreds of projects each year. The intersection between project development and historic preservation has intrigued Glass since his introduction to this specialized field of “contract archaeology” 20 years ago. Whether through conducting cultural resource investigations on behalf of a federal or state agency, or by navigating private developers and clients through the various federal, state, and local historic preservation laws and regulations, Glass and his firm identify, record, and assess cultural resources, evaluating whether each proposed project will impact significant cultural resources, which may be eligible for or listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  

Expertise

• Project Management
• Business Development
• Marketing