The bad news about the Study Restoration Project is that two days after they removed an entire side of the roof, it poured rain for hours! We haven’t had rain in weeks – maybe the best way to make sure it’s wet out is to start major construction. The good […]
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It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for: workers removed an entire side of the Study roof! Workers went up more than 30 feet in a lift truck to cut the copper roof into manageable pieces. Then they pried the pieces from the underlayment… and put them in the basket […]
We’re looking to add volunteers to Lew’s Crew! Following in Lew’s footsteps (as Adjutant General he recruited 13 companies of soldiers for the Civil War in 10 days), we’re calling everyone interested. Our biggest need is for tour guides, so if you are a people person willing to be an […]
To reset the front steps of the Study, workers removed caulking and sealant from around the cracks and gaps (we posted pictures last week), and then looped a harness around each step to remove them with the lift truck. Pulling the stop step away from the building. Completely removed! One […]
Some of the artifacts found in the screens include pieces of bottles (round pieces in the middle), fragments of plates (bottom left corner), nails (upper right corner), and a squirrel vertebrae (top). Anne Moore of Weintraut and Associates excavates a feature. An archaeological feature is like an artifact, but it […]
The archaeologists devoted one unit to finding the bottom of the reflecting pool. A probe indicated that the bottom of the pool is about 55 cm below the bottom of the unit when this picture was taken. That’s going to take a lot of digging! Because this is not an […]
Where is the grave of Old John? Local lore has it that Lew Wallace buried his favorite horse, named John, somewhere on the grounds. Last fall, surveyer Jim Swift brought out ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to investigate the southwestern corner of the grounds, where many people remember there being a marker […]
Anne Moore from Weintraut & Associates cut through tree roots that have grown across the top of the reflecting pool wall. At the end of the first day, the top of the reflecting pool wall was clean and clearly defined. Volunteers screened each bucket of dirt for artifacts. They pulled […]
The top of a wall has been found during the excavation of the reflecting pond! The archeology students and their helpers have unearthed a portion of the wall, amazingly just 3-4″ below ground level. The next step in the process will be to continue digging, unearthing more of the wall […]
A student helps map elevations with surveying equipment. Knowing how deep they are digging is critical to archaeologists’ work, so preparations require taking initial elevations of the ground. As they dig, the crew will measure everything in centimeters. Another part of preparations is marking bags for artifacts. All the dirt […]