VOLCANO, W.Va. (AP) — Oyster shells, ceramic pieces, wine bottles and buttons were among the artifacts uncovered by a team of archaeology students from the site of Thornhill Mansion, the former estate of oil and gas pioneer W.C. Stiles.
The team of eight students, led by Hocking College archaeology coordinator Annette Ericksen, worked alongside 40 volunteers from the community during the past two weeks. Today is the last day of the project, which began July 23.
The unearthed artifacts will help paint a picture of the Stiles family and its way of life in the once-thriving oil town of Volcano in the late 1800s.
“Each piece we find, no matter how small, offers clues to the past,” said professional archaeologist Chris Nelson. “Whether it’s a tiny piece of a ceramic plate, a button, or a broken wine bottle, they are all part of a bigger picture.”
This is the second excavation of the Stiles estate. Last year, the dig was confined to the foundation of the Stiles’ residence, but this year it expanded to the gardener’s residence several yards away.
“We are expanding out from the mansion itself, trying to plot the landscape,” he said Wednesday. “Historical documents and old photographs are a huge help in pinning down where exactly those other outbuildings were located, in relation to the mansion.”
Included on the estate were flower gardens, orchards, a tennis court, a barn, caretaker’s house and a wine, vegetable and fruit cellar.
The lack of domestic artifacts uncovered at the gardener’s residence leads Nelson to believe that the structure may not have been the home of the gardener, but rather a storage/garden shed and food cellar.
The lower level may have been a cellar for fruit and vegetable storage, while the upper level may have stored garden tools, he said.
In a one-by-one meter section, with a depth of about two feet, Nelson discovered some surprises in the gardener’s residence.
“I hit a clay pipe pretty deep in the ground, and it looks as if it’s headed in the direction of the cistern,” said Nelson. “I also found some bucket handles, pieces of garden tools and window glass. One of the biggest surprises was a wine bottle with the cork still in it. It blew my mind that the cork was still intact.”
The team is trying to locate the privy, which will likely be a “gold mine” for historical artifacts, Nelson said.
“The privy would have been located somewhere within 100 yards of the mansion. If you think about it, this would be the area where a lot of scraps and garbage would have been discarded,” said Nelson. “It’s also the area you might expect to find some interesting pieces, like coins, liquor bottles, broken plates.”
Shoe leather, buttons, broken bottles and porcelain pieces were found in the mansion foundation.
Ericksen said the team uncovered intact support stones, kitchen debris, knobs and oyster shells. Oysters were somewhat of a delicacy during the time, said Ericksen.
“Everything tells a story. It’s those personal items, like the buttons, which really tell you something about the person,” she said. “Finding those oyster shells says something too, about the family’s wealth and class.”
Artifacts found during last year’s dig have been cleaned and analyzed by Hocking College students, and are now housed in the Mountwood Park Museum near the marina.
Public participation in the dig has doubled this year, said Mike Naylor, chairman of the Friends of Mountwood History Committee.
“The whole area used to be completely grown over with weeds. The Friends of Mountwood started out with $300 and a few volunteers, and now this whole area is cleared and we’ve put up 15 signs,” said Naylor.
While the Stiles Mansion is an interesting site, Naylor hopes future digs will expand to other areas of Volcano, such as the old opera house, general store and Volcano Hotel.
This year’s dig was sponsored by the Wet Virginia Humanities Council, Wood County Historic Landmarks Commission and Wood County Commission.
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Information from: News and Sentinel (Parkersburg, W.Va.), http://www.newsandsentinel.com
