Archaeology, time, and POW/MIAs.

Hi All,

   I wanted to post this interview I gave for Calu Connections, at California University of Pennsylvania. It brings up to date the work I did on Diggers, the DPAA, and my time as an adjunct at the university. Pour yourself a rum neat, and enjoy the interview. I think the next interview will be about classic British motorcycles. Take care, 

Archaeology Dude

https://www.caltimes.org/6527/showcase/dr-marc-henshaw-a-k-a-the-archeology-dude-talks-about-adventures-and-field-opportunities/

Hello Everyone,


      Today we started our own Kickstarter to help fund excavations at the John Snowdon and Son's Vulcan Iron and Machine Works. As many of you who follow me have read, this site is of national significance especially in the realm of industrial archaeology and heritage. Please click on the link and check out our Kickstarter, then if you would like, please donate. Help us change the model for how archaeological projects get funded by placing the public at the forefront. Let's crowd source this project and get a green light to start digging this season!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/casearchaeology/brownsville-archaeology-festival?ref=live

Snowdon and Sons: Random Archaeology Pictures

Hello Everyone,

        I thought I'd just post some random pictures from the excavation for some weekend viewing. Hope you enjoy!

Don and Carl

Julz excavating around bottles

Sean cleaning the foundation of debris

Our mascot Riley

A view of the foundation with railroad ballast (fill) on the left (dark Stain)

Snowdon and Sons Vulcan Iron and Machine Works: Day 9

Hello Everyone,

        Today we had a reporter from the Pittsburgh Tribune Review out on the site today. He asked me an interesting question, one that I hadn't given much thought. "Out of all the places you've worked, in the forests [Allegheny National Forest], the plains, and in urban environments, which one do I like the most? I was taken aback by this question. Usually I would say that I love working in the woods, excavating sites hidden by nature and in areas that are far less traveled than most places. However, urban archaeology has really caught my eye. The urban environment. Here the sites aren't obscured by trees or shrubs (not always!), but here they are hidden in plain sight. Often times we walk past them everyday, an old building, an empty lot, a field by the river. What was there? Our limited ability to measure time in our own life cycle leaves enormous gaps in our historical record. Take the Snowdon and Sons foundry. Many have said, "I thought this was just an empty field!" or "Wasn't this only used by the railroad? I remember the railroad ran through here." The urban environment allows the archaeologist to peal away like an onion the many layers of time and present an ever present population with their own history. Everyday I get to shock someone into thinking about the past in a novel way, not a static past, but one that gets evolve and incorporate their memory. In urban archaeology I get to demystify my field and bring it out of the esoteric and into the tangible world. There is nothing like seeing a retired steel worker holding a tool from the foundry and perhaps wondering if their experience was similar to that of their 19th-century counterpart. How cool is that?      

Juls, Sean, and Liz. Looks like a Penndot road crew!

Pattern Shop Wall extending 6.5 feet below ground surface. The original ground surface was at the bottom of the unit.

Same unit as above, notice the brick debris from the Pattern Shop wall.

Hopefully this is where the foundation turns a corner eastward.

Same unit as above from a different angle looking east.

Snowdon Foundry Weekend Work Day 7-8.

Hello Everyone,


             Updates didn't occur these past couple of days due to a lack of Internet service. Anyhow, I'm back to report on this weekend's activity at the Snowdon and Sons Vulcan Iron and Machine Works. This weekend was the Market Street Arts Festival in downtown Brownsville, Pennsylvania. Like last year, this is a time when we coordinate Brownsville Archaeology Month to coincide with the festival. After all, isn't archaeology an art? Sure it is, we paint and sculpt the past as well as any artist! So to say the least, we had quite a few visitors to our site to check it out. Although we have been excavating for over two weeks, we still have yet to see any Brownsville Council person, the mayor, or any Brownsville Historical Society official at the site, let alone anyone from the Fayette County Historical Society. A shame really, as these are the people who we expect to advocates for the town, but really only care about the limited world views that they have. Anyhow, here are the pics from the weekend!  

Pattern Shop Wall

Pattern Shop Wall Excavation Block with Security Fence

The Pattern Shop Foundation extends 6 feet below ground surface

Interior Pattern Shop Excavation Block

Liz taking elevations

Left to right: Jonathan Crise, Kyle Norman, and Marc Henshaw (Archaeology Dude)

Vulcan Iron and Machine Works: Day 6

Hello All!


        Yesterday was busy, and today will be no exception. It was hot out at the site, no shade out on the old brownfield. Discoveries keep turning up at every scrape of the trowel and shovel of dirt. I have some great photos to show you and I'll leave at the moment, the interpretation to you. Remember, this part of the foundry was converted into a tenement apartments!

Remnants of a crawl space filled with brick from foundry walls.

Julz and Liz holding a comb they found.

The Comb!

It's a horse shoe with "Good Luck" stamped on its front/

Snowdon & Sons Vulcan Iron and Machine Works: Day 4

Hello Everyone,

A volunteer and Jonathan Crise cleaning the foundation.

       Today was a rainy, overcast, and dreary day in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Most archaeologists would have called it a rain-day and went home. Not us. The well drained soils of the concrete and railroad fill makes digging in the rain possible. Besides, does wet concrete make it any easier to dig through? NO! But a good maddock does. I only have two photos today of some archaeologists at work in their trenches. The foundation of the foundry seems largely intact with a sharp break for about 3 feet. The it turns into a pile of bricks, and then back into a cut stone foundation. From a photograph we have, it might represent where a crawl space was located. Only more time and more exploration will tell. Right now, I have to get back to transcribing oral histories from river workers here on the Monongahela, take care. 

Carl Maurer excavating the layer of brick at the bottom of his unit.

Related articles

• Snowdon Vulcan Iron and Machine Works Discovery!

Brownsville Archaeology Month Day 3

Hello All,

Munsell Color System (Photo credit: Crossett Library Bennington College)

       Here are some more exciting pictures from the Snowdon & Sons Vulcan Iron and Machine Works at Brownsville Archaeology Month! Friday, May 11th represented the third day of our excavations. We mainly had administrative work to do, mapping Munsell color testing, and some equipment repair. Enjoy!

Erin Morgan examining a piece of metal strapping.

Sean Rothhaar repairing a screen, a thankless job!

Jonathan Crise screening for artifacts.

The point of discovery!

 

I'm tired of teaching what was here...

Hello Everyone,

This little post comes after some feedback on my Facebook page. I thought it was appropriate so I'll post it here as well. The discussion started as several of our historic buildings here in Brownsville, Pennsylvania are being threatened. Not threatened by developer or the state; no they are threatened by the people we elect into our local government.

You expect that the people we elect to be the stewards of our town, they would protect that which is valuable to its community and preserve the fabric of our heritage. Instead, to your face they speak of valuing the core of the community but in their seats of power they tear the very fabric down. Instead of preserving and look to the future they are blind to the past, only because they do not understand that the wealthiest of communities have embraced their heritage and profited from it.

Two million dollars were allocated to Brownsville. I heard two million reasons to tear it down, and not a single reason to preserve it. These politicians want to rule over a community of rubble. In one instance a comment was made on Facebook over the destruction of the Mitchell House by a senior member of the Brownsville Council, "Tear it down!". How can we move forward as a community when those elected prefer a wrecking ball over using their head to move the community forward? I cannot take a stand alone, the culture of the community must change. I'm tired of teaching about what was there; it would be nice to teach about how we saved the town.

http://www.archaeologydude.com/2009/10/current-side-quest.html

Photo courtesy of Phillip Shandorf

Mitchell House. Photo courtesy of the Brownsville Telegraph Online. 

Snowdon Foundry: Brownsville Archaeology Month Day 2

Hello Everyone,


I'd like to share a few picks from today's discoveries. I also have some mystery artifacts that are always fun. I have to make one correction from yesterday's post, we DID NOT find a railroad datum point. It turned out to be one of these: 

Mystery items!

Erin Morgan and Carl Maurer Mapping their Unit 

Liz Atkin preparing her Excavation Unit for a Photo

   

Snowdon Vulcan Iron and Machine Works Discovery!

Hello Everyone,

        I would like to take a few moments and present an important discovery in American Industrial Archaeology. Myself, along with members of the local Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology Mon-Yough Chapter #3 have located and begun excavation on the Snowdon Vulcan Iron and Machine Works located right here in Brownsville, Pennsylvania. As you read on, you will notice reference to the nation's first cast iron bridge, a symbol which will become the cornerstone to Brownsville's redevelopment in the 21st-century.

1886 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map showing the Foundry

Aerial Photograph with Foundry Overlay 

     The turn of the 19^th century and the introduction of steam power ushered in a new industrial rush in Brownsville and Bridgeport, Pennsylvania.  In 1818, John Snowden arrived in Brownsville from Yorkshire, England (Ellis 1882; Gresham and Wiley 1889).  After apprenticing for a few years in a local foundry, he opened his own machine shop and rolling mill within close proximity to the riverbank.  Named after the Roman god of fire, the Vulcan Iron and Machine Works opened in 1824.  The Vulcan factory built the engines for the steamer Monongahela in 1827.  Snowden improved and extended the factory in 1831. In 1853, the establishment burned down and was subsequently rebuilt.  The business renovated to include a forge, rolling mill, pattern shop, foundry, boiler yard, and finishing shop all located on an acre of land on the bank of the Monongahela River (Kussart 1930; Thurston 1859).  The main two-story buildings were made of brick and faced the river.  The purpose of this main building was the finishing shop where parts were completed.  An excerpt from Thurston’s (1859:34) town directory describes in detail the factory:

"Within its walls and distributed over the use of two rooms, with nice regard to their convenient use, is gathered a large amount of machinery, of the latest improvements, adapted to all the requirements of machine manufacturing; among them are 19 turning lathes, 6 planning machines, 4 boring machines and 8 drill presses.  There upon the lower floor, 10 blacksmith fires, with all of their accompanying cranes, steam forge hammers, and etc.

     The foundry and finishing shops were constructed of brick and connected with the main building.  This area contained cranes and two large 12-ton capacity cupolas for delivering molten iron.  The foundry was in the forefront of the rolling mill and the forge was contained in another one story building.  Within this structure were six pairs of rolls, two puddling furnaces, two heating furnaces, one spike and one rivet machine that turned out 600 tons of bar iron a year (Thurston 1859).  A pattern shop used for cutting different shapes of metal adjoined the foundry."

     The Vulcan Iron and Machine Works, later called Snowden & Sons, employed 110 people with a weekly wage of $6.83 per person (Thurston 1859).  This factory produced a similar number of land use stationary steam engines such as those used to power the large belts of the machine shop.  The convenient location of the factory next to the Brownsville wharf allowed engines to be fitted to hulls while incoming boats unloaded goods. In 1863 the Vulcan Iron and Machine Works built the engines and boilers of the ironclads Manayunk and Umpqua.

1901. Photo Courtesy of  Donna Edwards-Jordan

     John Herbertson arrived

 in Brownsville in 1829 after learning the trade of steam engine building in Pittsburgh.  Originally from Glasgow, Scotland, Herbertson became a foreman in the Vulcan 

Iron and Machine Works engine shop.  When the wooden bridge 

collapsed over Dunlap’s Creek connecting Brownsville to 

Bridgeport, Snowden took the contract for the erection of a cast 

iron bridge (Ellis 1882; Kussart 1930; Thurston 1859).  This is  the 

first cast iron bridge in the United States.  Herbertson designed the 

bridge and supervised its construction (Gresham and Wiley 1889).  

A teaser image from some preliminary testing.

Herbertson eventually went into a partnership with Thomas Faull who was already operating a small foundry in Bridgeport.  Together they formed the Fayette Foundry, until 1842 when Faull withdrew from the partnership (Ellis 1882).  Herbertson later created Herbertson & Company with his sons in the 1880s as the business grew.

There will be more to follow as this project moves forward. Stay tuned! 

Text taken from:

Henshaw, Marc

2004  THE STEAMBOAT INDUSTRY IN BROWNSVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA: AN ETHNOHISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE ECONOMIC CHANGE IN THE MONONGAHELA VALLEY.

References:

Ellis, Franklin

1882  History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men.

Gresham, John and Samuel T. Wiley

1889  Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Fayette County, Pennsylvania. John M. Gresham, Maging Editor.

Kussart, Sarepta Cooper

1930 Navigation on the Monongahela River. Unpublished Manuscript.

Thurston, Geo. H.

1859  The Rivers and Valleys of Pennsylvania Then and Now.

Related articles

• First Cast Iron Bridge in the United States
• Brownsville Redevelopment
• A Structure Forgotten: The First Cast Iron Bridge in the United States

Day of Archaeology

     Tomorrow is the 2011 Day of Archaeology (http://www.dayofarchaeology.com), where archaeologists from around the world post their pictures and videos of a day in their life out in the field. I thought I would share with my readers a preview of the video that was shot today while excavating in Brownsville, Pennsylvania. There are three individuals who have helped my research tremendously by volunteering their time to excavate and analyse artifacts. We have three projects running concurrently, two steamboat captain's houses are being excavated, and one Native American site is being analysed. In this video are myself, Carl Maurer (www.mon-yougharchaeology.com), Sean Rothhaar and Amber Lawrence (California University of Pennsylvania).
So watch on, and enjoy!