Fri 13 Apr 2007
Archaeology and 3D Model of Areca Mill, Valley Forge, PA.
Posted by Matt under 3D , SketchUp , Archaeology , CRM , Historic[2] Comments
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.
Christopher approached 
ely probe the sediment below to look for signs of collapsed strata or a telltale void. Stating close to cell #68, the initial results gave the impression of a “V” shaped infilled trench under the courtyard. Possibly this could be part of the brick sewer or it could be the collapsed tunnel. Moving further towards the prison wall, the “V” shaped trench gave way to a very indistinct refraction signal which only showed the faintest shimmer of a hollow cavity. Due to the nature of the iron rich, intermittent sandy/clayey sand sediment below, the feedback from the GPR was diffuse. The locations of possible tunnel sightings were flagged and the survey was concluded, inconclusively.
In order to verify, and hopefully inspect, the tunnel, special video equipment was needed. The first attempt at seeing in the tunnel was done through the use of an “Electric Eel” sewer camera. This piece of equipment consists of a LED lit camera head on the end of a semi-rigid cord hooked into a small close caption display and VCR. The initial results were low quality, but stunning none-the-less. After 60 years, the tunnel from which 11 men tried to gain their freedom was seen again. As the camera was pushed through the soft sediment, only glimpses of the tunnel environment were seen. After some exploration, the camera, sprung by the tension of its own cord, flashed from darkness to the view that everyone had been waiting for; a clear picture of the wooden braces used for shoring. This “artifact” was one of the two key pieces to telling the tunnels story. Aside form the once rumored wooden supports was a description of an electrical lighting system used by the inmates. No evidence of this could be seen in the sewer cameras images.
video equipment. Thanks to the very accommodating team from 
system was plainly visible. In total 4 sets of wooden shoring are visible and still standing in various stages of decay. After 60 years, the wooden braces fashioned from various scraps from the prison wood shop were still doing their job.
Here is a link to a 
Digging for close to a year and a half, Kliney and his cell mate alluded suspicion. Taking turns digging at night, one prisoner would sleep while the other dug. Paper Mache heads were constructed to fool the ever watchful guards. At first, the prisoners disposed of the rock and soil in the cell toilet and in the yard. After a number of feet was dug from the tunnel, a brick sewer pipe was encountered and used to discard the dirt.
