I'm updating the website after having sent all the pictures and wanted to share some information about this picture and activity. This house was built by New Hope Lutheran Church as their parsonage in 1857. It burned down in 1945 after a lightening strike. UWSP purchased the land recently and has been allowing students to dig up the area. We found many nails and pieces of melted glass, bricks upon bricks, forks, knives, and pieces of plates. One piece of ceramic looked like a decorative wall-hanging plate. The piece we found had a calendar from January of 1910. Around the outside we were able to see holly leaves and berries painted on. We found the shower head, part of an oven grill, and a table leg (?) with a wheel/caster at the bottom. Over time the forest had grown over the house. A tree stump was dug/whacked/pulled out from the middle of the house. Our most amazing discoveries were an unbroken light bulb and a plastic or vinyl table cloth under the tree stump that amazingly survived the fire. The tree roots were wrapped around the table cloth so we were unable to pull it all out. All of the "important" finds were cataloged in the logbook with the discoverer's name. The kids were asking to skip lunch to keep searching.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Archeologists at work.
I'm updating the website after having sent all the pictures and wanted to share some information about this picture and activity. This house was built by New Hope Lutheran Church as their parsonage in 1857. It burned down in 1945 after a lightening strike. UWSP purchased the land recently and has been allowing students to dig up the area. We found many nails and pieces of melted glass, bricks upon bricks, forks, knives, and pieces of plates. One piece of ceramic looked like a decorative wall-hanging plate. The piece we found had a calendar from January of 1910. Around the outside we were able to see holly leaves and berries painted on. We found the shower head, part of an oven grill, and a table leg (?) with a wheel/caster at the bottom. Over time the forest had grown over the house. A tree stump was dug/whacked/pulled out from the middle of the house. Our most amazing discoveries were an unbroken light bulb and a plastic or vinyl table cloth under the tree stump that amazingly survived the fire. The tree roots were wrapped around the table cloth so we were unable to pull it all out. All of the "important" finds were cataloged in the logbook with the discoverer's name. The kids were asking to skip lunch to keep searching.
