Ok, on to Red Oak Grove and Howardsville. My visits to both yielded much less dramatic finds than at Union Clay, although there was evidence of historical activity in each location.
My main interest at Red Oak Grove was to search the site thoroughly for any structural remains, cellar holes, and particularly the remains of a cemetary that Beck alluded to in his famously precise way as being "out across the road."
I covered perhaps 60% of the ground at the site, and probably 80+% of the portion to the west of Clay Mine Rd. I did not find a cemetary or anything that hinted of one. The first thing I saw on entering the site was this cellar hole.
I can't help but think that the digging was done by amateurs, perhaps relic hunters. On the side of the cellar nearest the road a trench was cut into the bank.
I would think that trench is at least ten years old, and might be coincident with the excavation of the cellar hole. There is a great deal of brick and some sandstone scattered around the area.
Not far from the trench there is another cut in the bank by the road, somewhat shallower, and in that are the remains of a roll-up garage door. Whether there was a garage at this location, or the door was dumped there, I don't know. It is close to the cellar hole shown above.
And that's the sum total of everything I saw at Red Oak Grove... well there was one small section of metal fence, of the flexible wire kind that you would place around a garden. Off to Howardsville.
I had wondered about Howardsville for nearly a year. Thanks to Ben's making the 1930 aerials available I was able to pinpoint where it used to be, and so I went back to give it a good going over. Here is the road that runs north from what used to be Cook's Rd., paralleling the old, dried up part of the bog. There were structures along this road, and you can see plenty of brick scattered in the foreground of this shot.
There is a magnificent, gnarled old oak in the middle of the south meadow, that I think is probably a domesticated tree, or at least one that was preserved domestically. It's just a great, photogenic old plant.
There was also some terra cotta pipe here very similar to what is found on the Union Clay site, which I guess shouldn't be surprising.
This old telephone pole shows signs of fire, and was fitted for mounts for three conductors, so I guess there was something here at least through the age of electrification.
The whole site has a plowed-under look to it, with debris scattered everywhere. This wire is sticking up from the ground under some trees on the west side of the north meadow, by the road. Might have been a guy wire for the telephone/electrical line.
A shot of the lake from the southern turf dam.
You can just see a large gander standing guard by the old cedar in the center of the north meadow. He remained there on alert for the two hours I was on site. I guess there must be a female with young nearby.
Walking the north meadow I spotted these fragments of china plate.
This vehicle looks a little too home-brew to be a factory-built truck. Perhaps it has something to do with the feature in the next photo.
If you look carefully you can see the ends of what appear to be long ramps that build up to a gap in the center where they meet. Accidental? Or part of some loading system?
Sayer and Fischer bricks are pretty ubiquitous in the pines, and I found some here as well.
Lastly, we all know the pines rub off on you, but here's proof that the pines _really_ rub off on you.
Full image gallery can be viewed here.
My main interest at Red Oak Grove was to search the site thoroughly for any structural remains, cellar holes, and particularly the remains of a cemetary that Beck alluded to in his famously precise way as being "out across the road."
I covered perhaps 60% of the ground at the site, and probably 80+% of the portion to the west of Clay Mine Rd. I did not find a cemetary or anything that hinted of one. The first thing I saw on entering the site was this cellar hole.
I can't help but think that the digging was done by amateurs, perhaps relic hunters. On the side of the cellar nearest the road a trench was cut into the bank.
I would think that trench is at least ten years old, and might be coincident with the excavation of the cellar hole. There is a great deal of brick and some sandstone scattered around the area.
Not far from the trench there is another cut in the bank by the road, somewhat shallower, and in that are the remains of a roll-up garage door. Whether there was a garage at this location, or the door was dumped there, I don't know. It is close to the cellar hole shown above.
And that's the sum total of everything I saw at Red Oak Grove... well there was one small section of metal fence, of the flexible wire kind that you would place around a garden. Off to Howardsville.
I had wondered about Howardsville for nearly a year. Thanks to Ben's making the 1930 aerials available I was able to pinpoint where it used to be, and so I went back to give it a good going over. Here is the road that runs north from what used to be Cook's Rd., paralleling the old, dried up part of the bog. There were structures along this road, and you can see plenty of brick scattered in the foreground of this shot.
There is a magnificent, gnarled old oak in the middle of the south meadow, that I think is probably a domesticated tree, or at least one that was preserved domestically. It's just a great, photogenic old plant.
There was also some terra cotta pipe here very similar to what is found on the Union Clay site, which I guess shouldn't be surprising.
This old telephone pole shows signs of fire, and was fitted for mounts for three conductors, so I guess there was something here at least through the age of electrification.
The whole site has a plowed-under look to it, with debris scattered everywhere. This wire is sticking up from the ground under some trees on the west side of the north meadow, by the road. Might have been a guy wire for the telephone/electrical line.
A shot of the lake from the southern turf dam.
You can just see a large gander standing guard by the old cedar in the center of the north meadow. He remained there on alert for the two hours I was on site. I guess there must be a female with young nearby.
Walking the north meadow I spotted these fragments of china plate.
This vehicle looks a little too home-brew to be a factory-built truck. Perhaps it has something to do with the feature in the next photo.
If you look carefully you can see the ends of what appear to be long ramps that build up to a gap in the center where they meet. Accidental? Or part of some loading system?
Sayer and Fischer bricks are pretty ubiquitous in the pines, and I found some here as well.
Lastly, we all know the pines rub off on you, but here's proof that the pines _really_ rub off on you.
Full image gallery can be viewed here.
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