GIS for Archaeology and CRM

About a year ago I posted a short blurb about an archaeology project I was working on that incorporated a SketchUp model. The model was not so much the focus, or even a requested, of the project, but the data and interest were there, so… I modeled.

Briefly, the this project entailed documenting a series of foundation walls that are eroding from the edges of the Valley Creek in front of General Washington’s Headquarters in Valley Forge National Historic Park, Pennsylvania. Unable to control the flooding of this flashy little stream, the National Park Service asked that the walls be documented and a small area excavated to determine the age of the walls. As the records indicate, there were a number of mills at this location. Two of them dated to the mid 1700’s and were standing when George Washington called this plot home during the brutal winter of 1776.

To make a short story shorter, the archaeology was done, a nice foundation wall was exposed, and the eroding foundations were linked to the archaeology and historic maps. Construction methods and limited artifacts told us that the foundations eroding from the bank were more likely from the mid to late 1800’s and no the 1700’s. Finding a handful of late 1700’s artifacts underneath of the exposed foundation proved that it was older than the original mills. The conclusion: the foundation walls were part of the 1880’s Areca Paper mill. Built on and from the remnants of earlier buildings, this mill operated from 1880 to through the 1890’s. The entire complex was torn down in 1909 after the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania bought the property.In a super interesting twist, a comment received on the previous post of this models first generation, was from a gentlemen who had a family history tied to the mill! Paul Atkinson wrote:

“My Great grandfather worked at this mill in the late 1870 and 1880.My grandmother was born (1873) in a house just across the valley which her father bought after coming to the United States from England after the Civil War. Apparantly the mill went out of business late 1890.My grandmother tended cows on the very site of this mill. I recall seeing the foundation around 1940 or earlier when I very young. I was happy to see this historic reconstruction . The home my great grandfather bought in 1875 still stands and is a privite owned home . It was built in 1734..Seeing this gives me great pleasure. Also, knowing the fact my ggg grandfather served with Layfettye and George Washington at Valley Forge in 1777-1778. Paul Atkinson”

Using old documents and maps and the data we learned, I created a model of the Areca mill. (I <3 SketchUp!) Further establishing the historic visual context, I placed the mill model into photos of the landscape. This was a really fun part of the project (which was really my spare time, but people seemed to like it). Show is a recreation of an 1890’s photo.

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