Your explanation was so much more interesting! :wink:
Part of Cumberland lies on the Holly Farm tract that is being sold by Connectiv; most of it lies on Nature Conservancy ground.
I did a twelfth hour impromptu speech at the last town meeting (who knew that I could improvise for 10 minutes in front of a crowd of over a hundred people? I didn't!) . Anyway, now that the knowledge of the place exists, the developer is required by the Historic Preservation Act of 1966 to do a full cultural resource inventory of the property in question; if all goes well, former President of the Archeaological Society of NJ Charles Bello and his firm will be doing this inventory. Because it is impossible to categorize only the Holly Farm without the adjoining property due to the proximity of the furnace, by default there will be at least some decent inventory done of the furnace as well. These areas are threefold in their archeological significance: the prehistoric history--the projectile point I have in the Cumberland Furnace album, according to Alan, is a Rossville biface of mottled chert dating from the late Woodland period. There have been pottery sherds found there, and when we last were there we saw the remains of a cooking area. The second significance is the furnace; to date Alan and I have done a cursory preliminary field survey that inventoried the furnace stack, the bellows housing, the charging ramp, the catch basin, the raceways, and another area that may have been the grist mill site etc. The raceways were a bit more challenging; the maps of the 1830s show 3; the maps of the 1860s show only one, and only one is prominent at this time. We were however, able to find the other, more filled in, that would have served the grist mill I believe. There are likely other substrate remains, i.e., casting floor, etc. The third, which is more likely to be on the Holly Farm property , is portions of the village, the stores, the Society line marker, and the sites where the colliers would have made the coal.
I've been learning so much--from the red color on a quartz and multiple fissures being indicative of thermal alteration, to what plants tend to be found on Native American sites. It's really quite fascinating, and I am enjoying all that I am learning from Alan.
Anyway, to get back on to the point, TNC (the nature conservancy) would like to do a 14 mile or so trail that would head all the way down to Tern Pond, without ever retracing steps, and would like to georeference certain points, such as the furnace site, so that people will come use the trails and enjoy the diverse history of the area.
As far as excavation, I would imagine that any excavation done on the Holly Farm site would be done by Charles Bello's firm. He is, to my understanding, a very good archeaologist.
Re: excavation of the actual furnace stack, TNC is not in a position to hire a firm to excavate; however, I am hopeful that we will be able to work out the details for a university field dig, in which case there is a possibility that some local volunteers may be invited to help (I will keep you in the front of my mind, Al, if we are able to help!). There are a lot of details to work out, but that is the next step. Right now I'm concentrating on preparing my statement to the Board of Public Utilities, which I need to have submitted in the next week or so.
Unfortunately, covering the furnace was a necessary step; one to discourage the looters, and second, to protect the integrity of the furnace from further destruction due to vandalism and looting as well as the weather, so that it will be intact when we are able to finally excavate this wonderful site. At this point, the excavation that was (clumsily) done may have opened it to irrepairable damage and loss of historical recordization if it had set over the winter.
Sorry so long winded...as you can see, I am quite taken with this site, I don't take it lightly.
And I ain't gonna let nuttin happen to it if I's can help it! :storm:
Renee
