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Keeney Cabin - Alderson, WV

8/25/2015

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Well we couldn't just drive all the way back to Greenbrier County to core one structure, now could we?! After finishing up McCoy Fort, Shawn and I (not feeling nearly as worn out as usual) decided to revisit one of the structures we toured on our first trip - Keeney Cabin. Remember this cabin? 
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Keeney or Lewis (?) cabin. To be determined. Photo: KdG
What about this cute dog? Surely, he'll jog your memory!
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Woodrow aka "Woody". Photo: KdG
We couldn't stop thinking about Keeney Cabin after we left Greenbrier County the first time, so we asked Dan and Diana, the owners of the cabin, if we could come back and they said sure thing! The reason why we were so excited about dating Keeney Cabin is because it has two potential histories. It is either the Lewis Cabin, constructed in the late 1700s and moved to the current site sometime later, or its the Keeney Cabin and it dates to the early 1800s. Of course no one knows which one it is, but the histories associated with each family are quite different and thus the significance of the cabin would be different depending on the construction date.  The photograph below, taken around 1914, shows Keeney Cabin (bottom left) in its current location. 
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Keeney Cabin is seen in this 1914 photo of the Blaker's Mill area. Photo courtesy of Margaret Hambrick.
The one room log cabin has steeple notching, which usually places the construction date around the late 1700s in this area; however, it is still possible that the cabin was built in the early 1800s.
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Steeple notching on Keeney Cabin. Photo: KdG
It was converted into a garage in the early-to-mid 1900's to store the previous owner's 1931 Model T convertible pick up truck (for all of you antique car enthusiasts). 
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Keeney Cabin was converted into a garage in the early to mid 1900s. Photo: KdG
I imagine by now you know what we came to do. This time we put Dan to work too. Dan collected the longest archaeological core of the project. And the longest one I've ever seen. Pretty impressive, Dan! Looking for a job?
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Dan, the owner of Keeney cabin, coring right along with us. Photo: KdG
Then we got a surprise visit from Drs. Stephen and Kim McBride, archaeologists from the University of Kentucky. They happened to be in the area working on a project and, being good friends of Dan and Diana, they stopped by to hang out! So we put Stephen to work too....
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Stephen McBride, archaeologist at UK, collecting his first tree-ring core. Photo: KdG
We collected 25 great cores from Keeney Cabin that day. The only thing that could have topped it was if Woody caught a squirrel. Well, guess what? He did! I didn't get any pictures to show you, but you probably wouldn't want to see them anyway. He was sooo proud of his catch. He and his new (dead) squirrel friend went everywhere together that day. It was a great end to a great day! Maybe not so much for the squirrel though...

We owe a great big thank you to Dan and Diana for letting us work/play at Keeney Cabin, for providing a delicious lunch from Alderson Green Grocer (if you're ever in the area), and for bringing us a generator to keep the drills going. We really enjoyed working with you and can't wait to share our results!
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McCoy Fort - Williamsburg, WV

8/24/2015

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For our final trip of the summer 2015 field season, Shawn, Andrew, and I headed to McCoy Fort in Williamsburg, WV. During the 1770's McCoy Fort served the area's settlers as protection against Native American raids. The fort was later used as a barn after the McCoy family built a new house, and during the 19th century the fort/barn was covered by a larger barn. 

It was largely forgotten until the 2000's when archaeologists, Drs. Kim and Stephen McBride, began searching the area for the foundation of McCoy Fort. It was then that they discovered the log structure, hidden inside of a barn, standing on the site of the original fort. Could it be McCoy Fort?? 
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McCoy Fort covered by an outer barn. You can see the logs of the 2 story fort just inside the barn. This picture was taken after the derecho of 2012. Photo: Carolyn Stephens
In 2012 a derecho threatened the structural integrity of the barn and enclosed log structure. Fearing the collapse of the potential fort, the Williamsburg Historical District Foundation (WHDF) gathered funds to purchase and preserve the log structure. The first step in preserving McCoy Fort was to dismantle the barn and move it so that the McBrides could do an archaeological dig around the foundation. The archaeological dig provided firm evidence that the foundation of the fort did in fact exist in this location. 

Carolyn Stephens of the WHDF heard about the HTP and contacted us to see if we could date McCoy Fort to provide further evidence of its historic status. If the log structure that sat on the McCoy Fort foundation does in fact date to 1769-1770, then it is McCoy Fort and is one of the last remaining frontier forts in Greenbrier County and southeastern West Virginia. Additionally, it could also be the oldest remaining log structure in Greenbrier County. 

We knew we had to help Carolyn and the WHDF since there was so much potential historical significance in this structure! 

Fast forward to July 2015. Of course, things look a bit different now. The foundation that was dug up by the McBrides is now grown over.
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You can see the foundation stones sticking out of the grasses. The barn behind them is an unrelated sheep barn. Photo: KdG
And the fort is now a pile of logs....
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McCoy Fort, after it was dismantled. Photo: KdG
But this is all progress! The WDHF is working to get this pile of logs moved to their museum. They hope to rebuild, renovate, and make the fort a permanent exhibit. So cool! 

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Every site we work on has its own set of challenges and McCoy Fort was no different. After uncovering the logs we discovered that a raccoon had called this place home sweet home. Fortunately for us, the raccoon wasn't fond of being rained on and promptly moved out. And the sheepdogs we befriended made sure the raccoon didn't return. 
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Carolyn kept an eye out for the raccoon too. 
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The next challenge for us was figuring out how to collect samples from a pile of logs. These logs are heavy and moving them by ourselves was not an option! This meant that we were limited to the outer logs, so we may have to return once it has been reconstructed to collect more samples. Only time will tell. 
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Shawn and Andrew tackled one side of the pile. 
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Many of the outer logs still had bark on them. That was a relief. 
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Even though this was Andrew's first summer on the project, he was a coring machine!
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You probably don't recognize him without the blue plaid shirt, but there's Shawn. He always gets the dangerous jobs, like sitting on an unstable log with a nail sticking out of it, and coring in a very uncomfortable position....
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Or like having to stand on top of the logs to core. These are just things Shawn does....He's a good sport.
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And he gets excited about small victories too. That's why we make a good team. 

All in all, it was a successful trip. We collected almost 30 nice samples and we look forward to the upcoming lab work. We really hope this is the McCoy Fort! We will post the date and time of our presentation of results in the spring. Hope to see you there!

We owe a big thanks to Carolyn Stephens and the WDHF for inviting us to work on McCoy Fort and for letting us borrow her generator when the drills died. They always do....
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The Grand Finale of our Pendleton County Trip - Kile Homestead

8/20/2015

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After days of touring potential structures in Pendleton County we finally had to pick up the drills, warm up the coring muscles, and get to work! So we headed to Upper Tract to meet with Michelle and Jason Sites, owners of the Kile Homestead. Michelle and I had been emailing back and forth for months about the Kile Homestead and our proposed work, so it was a real pleasure getting to finally meet her in person! 

We were a bit nervous about this site, because we had not had an opportunity to tour it before committing to sampling. This is something we very rarely do, but Michelle and I had discussed the details of the structures and she confirmed that there was bark on a number of logs. Fortunately, almost everything was exactly as she had described it to us! I'll get back to the "almost" part in a moment. Let me first introduce the Kile Homestead.

Kile Homestead - Upper Tract, WV

The Kile Homestead includes a large 2 story log house (covered in siding) with a once-detached kitchen (now connected and covered),  a 2 story log slave quarters, and a 2 story log barn. The Sites hope to restore this historical property. 

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I forgot to take a picture of the house. Michelle happened to have this one on hand, but as she said, it was more about the trees than the house. Good enough right? Photo: Michelle Clark Sites
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The slave quarters is a 2 story log structure, now covered in siding. Photo: KdG
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The barn is a 2 story log structure with a slat addition on the right. Photo: KdG

The Kile family settled near the river in Upper Tract in the 1780s. Sometime after settling they had to relocate to higher ground for safety because of a yellow fever outbreak. So they moved to the current location. The large house, kitchen, slave quarters, and barn were all likely built sometime between 1800 and the 1830s. There are a few clues about the age of the structures - the chimney of the main house has initials and the date 1834 carved into it and the first time the house and outbuildings showed up on the census was in 1840. Additionally, Michelle recently told me that she was given a penny (dated 1840) that a woman had found inside of the slave quarters when she was a young girl. 

All signs point to no later than 1840, but it is possible that there is a considerable difference in the ages of these structures. I imagine if the family had to relocate quickly they probably first built a basic one-room structure to reside in while the main house was constructed. The kitchen, barn, and slave quarters all fit that description, but only the slave quarters and kitchen have a hearth, so my guess is that either of them could have been the first structure built on the property. But enough conjecture already! Sometimes I get a little too excited and then I forget that I'm here to answer these questions...

Field Work

We had 2 days to sample the slave quarters, kitchen, house, and barn. This was a really tall order! It usually takes about 20-30 minutes to collect 1 core. We needed to collect about 65 cores. And map the structures. And fill the holes. And sleep? Yikes! 

Shawn and I decided that we would start in the slave quarters. First let me explain the conditions of the slaves quarters - not only did it feel incredibly oppressive in there (for obvious reasons), it was also full of spiders (we named the closet the "Black Widow Closet" for a reason) and unidentified, creepily human-like, scat. We decided that Shawn would tackle the downstairs (and the Black Widow Closet) and I would tackle the upstairs (and the scat). Seemed like a fair trade to me.

Michelle, if you're reading this and cringing - please don't. These types of places are old and it is expected that they are full of something creepy and/or gross. It just varies by location and we love setting up our adventure stories with the gory details.

By now, readers, you know the details of coring so I'm just going to set you loose with some pictures of our work. Sounds more interesting, right? 

If you don't know the details of coring yet, please visit the Barracks Field Work post and catch up with us!

Slave Quarters

We moved on to the house after completing the sampling in the slave quarters. Because the kitchen was separated from the main house by the breezeway, we decided to treat it as if it was its own structure. We also made sure to collect samples from the breezeway walls to see when the two structures were connected. We were all set to get started in house, but there was one tiny problem....
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Interior of the Kile House. Notice anything odd? Photo: KdG
There were no logs!!! AHHH. Worst nightmare come true! Fortunately, this crisis was easily averted. Jason, armed with a sawzall and a crowbar, came to the rescue! This was a first for me. I have never been in a house where the homeowner was willing to do demolition so that I could access the logs. Shawn and I would point at a wall we wanted taken out and Jason would tear it down. It was awesome!

House and Kitchen

After finishing up in the house we had a few hours left to tackle the barn. We were a bit hesitant to work in here because A) there was no bark and B) the logs were pretty weathered. We decided the best plan of action was to collect a few samples from the best beams and see what happened. Unfortunately, the wood was not solid and a few of the cores crumbled, but we got 2 that were in decent enough shape to be dated. We likely won't be able to provide a firm date for the barn, but at least we can give the Sites an idea of how old it was. 

Barn

Well, folks, that concludes our trip to Pendleton County. We had a great time there and hope to return soon for more work. We owe a big thanks to Jason and Michelle for letting us poke holes in the Kile structures, providing us a generator when the drills died, tearing down walls for us, and feeding us delicious strawberry salad. We can't wait to see the Kile house once it has been fully restored! 
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Historic Structures of Pendleton County - Part 3

8/18/2015

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On our third day in Pendleton County we met up with Jack and Cindy Bowers, members of the Pendleton County Historical Society (PCHS). We were treated to coffee (yes, please!) and a documentary on early German settlement into Pendleton County and the culture of witchcraft that these settlers brought to the area. The documentary is called "Signs, Cures, & Witchery" and was really interesting! It featured the Pitsenbarger family along with other founding families of Pendleton County. Thanks to Jeff and Teresa Munn for letting the Bowers borrow the movie again for us to see! 

After coffee and movie hour, we got down to business. Jack's great great great great grandfather (Jack, did I get that right?), Patrick Sinnett, moved to Pendleton County from Ireland and settled in Sugar Grove. His son, Henry Sinnett, also settled in the area and even fought in the battle of Yorktown. The Sinnetts owned a large tract of land in the mid-to-late 1700s and built a number of houses and barns along the property, but the documented history of these log structures was sparse, so the family has no idea when any of them were actually built. It is assumed that one house and one barn were the original Sinnett structures and the others followed over time. But the real mystery here is which house and which barn were from the original Sinnett homestead. Of course, this is where we come in...

Jack and Cindy weren't able to go with us to the structures, but they pointed out where everything was (generally) and let us explore on our own. The first structure we visited was a double crib barn that is still currently in use. Because there are a lot of unnamed houses and barns on this property, I will refer to them using numbers. This is Barn 1. It is the furthest log structure from the houses and so is not believed to be the oldest barn, but it could still be of considerable age. Fortunately, Barn 1 had a lot of bark - almost every log had full bark still attached thanks to the sheltering overhang.
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The furthest barn from the Sinnett homestead site. It is currently covered and the logs are in great shape! Photo: KdG
Oh, I forgot to mention it was very rainy that day. 
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White oak logs. Photo: KdG
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The logs were roughly steeple notched and left rounded on the bottom. Photo: KdG
Next, we drove a short distance (closer to the homestead site) to see another barn, Barn 2. You can actually see the Sinnett homestead site off in the distance on the left side of the barn. Barn 2, another double crib barn, was not as pristine since it had not been covered. The logs were badly weathered on a few sides, but the interior logs were in pretty good shape. Barn 2 also had steeple notching and the bottoms of the notched logs were left rounded. This feature seems to be particular to Pendleton County because we did not see much of it in other counties we visited. 
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Steeple notching on Barn 2. Photo: KdG
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The interior logs were in good shape, but most of them did not have bark. Shawn is standing just below the second floor of the barn. Photo: KdG
The third Sinnett barn we investigated was very close to the houses. I forgot to take a picture of the exterior, but it looked like a barn in a field. You'll just have to trust me on that. This barn is currently being used for animals and was pretty mucky. I didn't get great pictures of the interior either (part of it was locked and the whole thing was covered), but most of the logs are more hewn than the other barns. Bark was lacking throughout most of it. This will be one we revisit if we have the chance. 
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Interior of barn 3. Mostly hewn logs. Photo: KdG
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Huge log! Photo: KdG
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We peeked around the corner of the barn and found an exposed wall! Yay! If you look closely, you'll see that the logs are steeple notched. Photo: KdG
Our next stop was a log house, House 1, just behind the modern house on the property. The log house was covered in siding and locked so we weren't able to explore too far, but it showed some potential. The notching style appeared to be half dovetail, based on the foundation log.
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House 1. Not much to see here. Completely covered. Photo:KdG
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The foundation log was half dovetail notched. This was likely a later house. Photo: KdG
Ok, here's where things get interesting. Jack had told us that just past House 1 there was another house and this one was believed to be the oldest house on the property. So, Shawn and I set out to find it. The problem was that we didn't see any other log structures. We assumed it was further back in the narrow valley so we walked further in. I even forded a stream (Shawn didn't have his rain boots on), but I still couldn't find it! I did see a dilapidated barn (it was sided and uninteresting), but nothing else as far as the eye could see. So we hiked back to the car and decided to drive up a road that paralleled the property. Maybe we could find it that way? Nothing. We found nothing, after hours of looking, except for that darn dilapidated barn! So we drove back to the Bowers' house in confusion and defeat.

Jack and Cindy decided to take us back there themselves and show us this house. So, we walked back in (we took the way that doesn't cross a stream - smart) and Jack and Cindy walked us right up to the dilapidated barn.....yep! Sure enough, just inside of the boring, sided barn, there were beautiful logs. I could have kicked myself. So this was House 2 - believed to be the original house, and masquerading as a boring dilapidated barn these days. What a trickster!
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Here's the house. Doesn't look like log huh? Photo: KdG
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Had I thought to look through this window on the backside, I would have seen the logs. Photo: KdG
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And here's the inside. A two story log cabin. Bam! The upper floor is missing a few logs. Photo: KdG
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Oak logs. Photo: KdG
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Bark still intact on some of the logs. Photo: KdG
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Shawn was brave enough to check out the second floor. I was only brave enough to snap a quick photo of Shawn's bravery. Photo: KdG
So, with a lot of help we found what was believed to be the old Sinnett house. It had steeple notching and pegged logs, both good signs of age in my book. 

We are excited to return to the Sinnett property and place these log structures in time! 

Thanks to Jack and Cindy Bowers for feeding us coffee, showing us the documentary, sharing their family history with us, pointing us in the right direction while we toured structures, and then finally escorting us directly to the Sinnett house/barn when our log house-hunting skills failed us.
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Historic Structures of Pendleton County - Part 2

8/11/2015

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On day two of our tour around Pendleton County we met with the Pendleton County Historical Society (PCHS) president David Swecker, former president Richard Ruddle, and member Dewayne Borrer. David and Richard had a few places to show us around the county, but the first order of business was the Boggs House Museum in Franklin, headquarters of the PCHS.

Boggs House Museum

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Exposed interior wall of Boggs House Museum. Note the dovetail notching and large diameter logs. Photo: K. de Graauw
The documented history of Boggs House Museum goes as follows: It was built in 1758 as a frontier fort and was originally located 3 miles outside of Franklin. It was moved to its current location in Franklin in the early 1800s and was used as a house. In the late 1800s it was covered in siding but when the house was donated to the PCHS, they exposed two interior log walls for display.
The logs used to build this house really are impressive. I'm not sure if pictures can convey how large they are. Some are over two feet in diameter! You can see in the photo above that they have dovetail notching, which usually indicates construction in the mid to late 1800s for this area, so it is interesting that the documented date of construction is so early. The PCHS believes the logs are black walnut, another interesting feature, as this is not a species of tree typically used for log structure construction in this area. The exposed logs show a great deal of weathering and some locations have what appear to be burn marks on them. Curiouser and curiouser....
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Possible burn marks on a doorway that was later covered. Photo: K. de Graauw

Now, I'm about to get slightly off topic, but bear with me here for a moment. I'd like to discuss our methods. This is a topic that often arises when we meet with folks who are interested in having their structure dated using tree-rings. I can't tell you how many times someone has wanted me to date their structure, but is only willing to let me collect one sample. By the way, this was not the case with Boggs House Museum, but I'm going to make a point that is related.

Here are two very real possibilities of what happens when we collect only one sample from a structure:
1. The sample breaks into tiny pieces or turns to sawdust. It is no longer usable. We cannot provide a date for sawdust. The end.
2. The sample comes out perfectly (yay!), but we just so happened to sample the one log that was a replacement 100 years after the structure was built. Great, you now have an incorrect date for your structure and we will never know the true date because we only collected one sample.

So, the moral of this story is that we absolutely must collect more than one sample to provide you an accurate date for your structure. This idea of replication is fundamental to our science, whether we are sampling trees for ecology or logs for construction dates. Multiple individual trees (logs in this case) must independently verify an event before we can conclude that it is a real phenomenon. We will never provide you a construction date for a structure after taking only one sample. Period. It's bad science and it's bad business.

Ok, so that being said, I will now get back on topic.

Because Bogg's House Museum is mostly covered and only about 12 logs are exposed, this place is kind of tricky. We were really interested in dating the museum, but for the reasons mentioned above in my little tangent, we were hesitant to agree to do any work. However, David and Richard, both fully informed on the issue, agreed that they wanted to know as much as possible about the museum even if we couldn't guarantee an accurate cutting date. We decided the best plan of action was to collect a few samples to test the wood quality, identify the species, and determine rough dates for the logs.
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Shawn and Ole Blue (that's his favorite field work shirt if you haven't noticed) collecting a sample from the Boggs House Museum. Photo: K. de Graauw
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We use starter plates to help us with the first half inch of drilling. Without them we run the risk of scratching the logs or breaking the outer core, which is the most important section for dating. Photo: K. de Graauw
The samples were in excellent condition. So we don't have to worry about that, at least. They are now awaiting further analysis at the lab. Our hope is to return to the museum and collect as many samples as possible. Maybe then we can provide a cutting date. But it is a real possibility that we won't have enough data to determine when the Boggs House Museum was built. Stick with us to find out.

Elias Hammer Homestead

Our next stop for the day was the Elias Hammer Homestead in Ruddle, currently owned by the Vandevenders. Elias Hammer inherited the property in the 1830s and began to build his homestead, hence the name. But long before Elias Hammer inherited the land there was a fort here. Skidmore's Fort. Which is no longer standing. Stay with me here, this one gets interesting....

Spring House

The spring house was built out of a mix of species including pine, oak, and poplar. It has half dovetail notching and is currently not chinked. At one point in time it was used as a room to hang meat. The half dovetail notching suggests early to mid 1800s construction, which would mean it was likely built by Elias Hammer once he inherited the property.
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Spring House. Photo: K. de Graauw

Kitchen

The kitchen also has half dovetail notching. It was recently rechinked, and they did a great job because there was only one spot where we could squeeze a drill in the wood. So, it's not a candidate for tree-ring dating but the notching suggests it was built around the same time as the spring house.
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Kitchen. Sorry about the not so great photo. I don't know what I was thinking. Photo: K. de Graauw

Whiskey Barn

The whiskey barn sounds like a cool bluegrass band name to me. If you read this and you happen to play bluegrass, and you happen to need a band name, and you decide to name your bluegrass band Whiskey Barn, please write a clever song about tree rings or the HTP.

Anyway, the whiskey barn is a rather large structure built of oak and pine logs. Many of them have bark, which is great for dating purposes. The interesting thing about the barn is that the notching is not half dovetail like the spring house and the kitchen. Instead, it is steeple notched and round on the bottom. This suggests it was likely built before the spring house and the kitchen. Well before, if you ask me. Steeple notching usually indicates late 1700s construction. Anybody else thinking what I'm thinking yet?

Ok, I'll give you a hint. There once was fort on this property. There is no longer a fort on this property. Or is there??? This is all speculation, of course. It sure would be cool to find out though.
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Whiskey Barn. Photo: K. de Graauw
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End of an oak log in the whiskey barn. Note the crude steeple notching at the top. Photo: K. de Graauw

House

The house is a two story structure built from oak and pine logs. An addition was built on at some point in time, likely the late 1800s or early 1900s. The house also has steeple notching, but it is not as crude as the barn. Someone clearly put more time and effort into this structure, but again, it could date to the later 1700s. Could it possibly be the fort? Or built from the fort logs? Maybe. I would love to find out. Wouldn't you?
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We owe a special thanks to the Vandevenders for letting us onto their property to see their structures.

Brookside Farm Schoolhouse

We ventured just down the road from the Hammer Homestead to see the old schoolhouse. It once sat about two miles away from its current location, but a new schoolhouse was built in the 1890s, rendering this one useless. It served as a granary afterwards.
We know the schoolhouse predates the 1890s based on historical documentation. The half dovetail notching suggests it was likely built in the early to mid 1800s. We identified numerals on all logs from where it had been assembled/disassembled. Based on our assessment, it would make a good candidate for tree-ring dating.
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Simmons Barn

Next we dropped in (unannounced, and unbeknownst to us) on Charlie and June Padgett at the Simmons Homestead. They were great sports about our surprise appearance and happily showed us around. 
The Simmons Barn was huge! HUGE! The original Simmons house no longer stands, but documents suggest it was built in the 1750s. The second house, all brick, was built in 1812. The barn could date to either the first house or the second house. No one really knows its history, but oral tradition says it is the original barn.
Many of the logs in the barn were rounded and saddle notched, a style typical of western log structures. But there were a few logs that were steeple notched. Odd. It is possible some original logs were reused in a newer barn. All logs were left unhewn. Dates and initials were found carved into the wood in a few locations.
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Simmons Barn and Shawn for scale. Bet that doesn't really help if you don't know how tall he is. Shawn, how tall are you? Photo: K. de Graauw
The Simmons barn was a real head-scratcher. We didn't know what to make of it. Sometimes those are the most exciting structures. Thanks to Charlie and June for letting us barge in on a rainy day!

Well that wraps up another day of tours in Pendleton County. But wait, there's more! Check back soon to see where we went next!
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For those of you who are into ghosts: I accidentally snapped this photo of Shawn while we were in the attic of the Hammer spring house. Crazy light effects! Anybody care to tell us what that is?? Photo: K. de Graauw
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Historic Structures of Pendleton County - Part 1

8/9/2015

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After a week of recovery from our trip to Lewisburg, the Historic Timbers Project hit the road again. This time we were heading to Pendleton County to collect samples from multiple structures at the Kile Homestead and to visit some potential structures for future tree-ring dating.

If you haven't already visited Pendleton County, you really must go! It is a beautiful part of West Virginia and is home to Seneca Rocks (an awesome rock outcrop) and Spruce Knob (the highest point in WV). It is also known for amazing pie! Well, maybe not, but we had excellent pie EVERY SINGLE NIGHT and we loved it. Thanks to the Fireside Cafe folks of Franklin who literally served us breakfast, lunch, dinner, and pie every day for a week. Delicious! 

Our first stop in Pendleton County was the Pitsenbarger Farm. Some folks at the WV Preservation Alliance told us about this place a while ago, and we had been dying to see it ever since! Fortunately, the owners, Jeff and Teresa, were equally as excited to have us come visit. Here are the highlights from our trip to Pitsenbarger Farm.

Ananias Pitsenbarger Farm

The Pitsenbarger Farm property was owned by three German families from the late 1700s to the 1970s. It is an all inclusive farm with 23 original structures still standing. Henry Amick purchased the land in the late 1700s, John Propst purchased the farm from Amick in 1845, and the Pitsenbarger family purchased it from Propst and resided there until the 1970s. It is unknown which of the families were responsible for the construction of these structures. Tree-ring dating would help place each log building with the original owner.

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Pitsenbarger Farm. Photo: K. de Graauw

Barn

The double crib barn appears to have been built using multiple tree species, including white oak, tulip poplar, and possibly American chestnut. It has steeple notches that were left rounded on the bottom edge. Because of its proximity to the Amick House site and significant distance from the rest of the Pitsenbarger structures it is possible that this barn was built during the Amick ownership in the late 1700s.
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Double crib barn. Potentially from the late 1700s Photo: K. de Graauw

Farm House

The farm house is a two story log structure with an attic. It is currently covered in siding on the outside, but logs are visible on the inside. A kitchen was added to the structure, probably in the late 1800s. It is believed that this farm house was constructed by the Propst family around 1845.
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Farm House. Photo: K. de Graauw

Spring House

There is no known date for the spring house, though the half dovetail notching suggests mid 1800s construction, likely placing it under the Propst ownership. We were unable to identify the species used in construction; however, it appears to be built of either tulip poplar or American chestnut.
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Spring House. Photo: K. de Graauw


Granary

The granary also has half dovetail notching, is near to the farm house, and likely dates to the same time period as the spring house.
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Granary. Photo: K. de Graauw

Horse Stable

Interestingly, the horse stable has steeple notching in the same style as the barn. It could possibly predate the house, spring house, and granary as an Amick structure.
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Horse Stable. Photo: K. de Graauw


We owe a special thanks to Jeff and Teresa Munn for inviting us to poke around their beautiful farm. To be continued??? We hope so!

If you'd like to learn more about the Pitsenbarger Farm, click here or check out their Facebook page
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Post Field Work Core Prep

8/6/2015

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We've been anxiously awaiting the arrival of a box of wood. It's not just any box of wood though. It's a box of custom made core mounts from right here in West Virginia. Our core mount guy ships these mounts to tree-ring researchers all over the US and Canada. Why? Because he's the best!

OK, so I've talked these core mounts up, but there's not much to them. Basically, they are little cradles for our cores to rest in. These cores have been around for hundreds of years and they're tired.
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End view of a core mount. Photo: K. de Graauw
The purpose of a core mount is to hold the core so we can sand it without breaking it into eight million pieces. Core mounts are very important. Without them, we can't sand. If we can't sand, we can't see the tree rings. Without tree rings there's no tree-ring dating! You get what I'm saying.

Core Prep

Step 1: We write the core ID on the mount.
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Transferring core ID from tube to mount. Photo: K. de Graauw

Step 2: Glue, baby!

We use kid-friendly Elmer's Glue. This stuff is great because it's water soluble, meaning we can fix our mistakes (and we have our fair share of mistakes).
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We apply glue to the core mount. Photo: K. de Graauw
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Then we place the core in the glue. Photo: K. de Graauw
Super easy, right? I know what you're thinking. "My five year old could do this!" Yes, they probably could. Our methods are pretty straight forward. But, you'd be surprised how many times we mess this part up. What I haven't told you yet is that the cores have to be placed in the glue in a particular way. If you don't set them in the mounts properly you can't see the rings. And we are nothing without our tree rings!

So here's a little lesson in wood anatomy for tree-ring dating...

Cross-sectional surface: This is the good one. This allows us to view rings.

Radial Surface: This one is no good for viewing tree rings.

Tangential surface: This one helps us double check if we have the correct surface facing upwards. Here's the trick: The fibers of the tangential surface should always be vertical. If they're horizontal, the radial surface is facing upwards. Not good.
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The three surfaces of wood. Courtesy of the Department of Forestry, University of Kentucky.

Step 3: Tape the core to the mount.

Tape is great. It holds the core down while the glue dries. Those stubborn cores like to bend. Tape keeps them in line.
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We use tape to hold the core in position while the glue dries. Photo: K. de Graauw
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All the supplies needed for mounting cores. Very old and much loved dryer not included. Photo: K. de Graauw

Step 4: Cutting the mounts.

After the glued-and-taped cores dry we cut the mounts into core size pieces. This makes it easy to sand them.
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Cut mounts. Photo: K. de Graauw

Step 5: Sanding.

This is the most exciting part of prep work. Each core is like a little gift waiting to be unwrapped. As soon as we sand them, we can tell what species they are and we can see all the beautiful little rings. Ahh. Bliss!

We have a four stage sanding process. On the first pass we use 100 grit paper. Then 220, 320, and 400. The sand papers progress from coarse to very fine, leaving us a nice polished surface at the end.
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Sanding cores with four grits. Photo: K. de Graauw
Oh yeah, and another reason why clear tape rocks: You can sand right through it! Easy peasy. Here are some cores that have been sanded using 100 grit. You can already see the rings are starting to pop! Three more grits to go though.
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Cores sanded with 100 grit belt. Photo: K. de Graauw
And these beautiful babies are completely sanded. See those rings? Aren't they lovely?
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Sanded cores ready for the lab. Photo: K. de Graauw
But then there's this little guy. We'll call him Billy. Remember what I was saying about mounting cores the wrong way? Well, I did it. Billy is all messed up right now. See how the left side looks "stripey"? That's the radial surface. The right side is the cross-sectional surface. Billy is actually twisted half-way through. I started to sand it and quickly realized it was mounted wrong on the left, so I stopped. We're gonna have to unglue Billy (this is why we use Elmer's), snap him in half, and re-glue the left side. And then re-sand. Such a process. Bad Billy.
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"Billy", the bad core. Photo: K. de Graauw
Up next: Lab Work! This part gets exciting, but I'm not giving away all of the news here folks! No, no. I'll show you how it's done but if you want to know how old these log structures are you'll have to come to the presentations in the spring!
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