Brunswick Town/Ford Anderson hosted an East Carolina University Archaeological Field School at the historic location. The students were from East Carolina School of Archeology and Paleontology. Dr. Charles Ewen headed the team. He has written several books on archeology. Dr. Ewin’s latest book, "Dead Man’s Chest" comes out this September. He has written ten books and monographs. In the Fall 2022 Dr. Ewen did a presentation, "A Colonial Tavern at Brunswick Town, at the NC Maritime Museum at Southport. He did nine other presentations between 2021-2023 on various locations.
The undergrads were: Cameron Baumgarner, Haley Dixon, Shannon Dugan, Cameron Hill, Carolina Johnson, Stephen Johnson (no relation to Caroline), Charles Knowles, Rebecca Santoro, and Isabel Sarria. My grad assistants were: Addison Siemon and Autumn Saski. They arrived on May 15th and stayed at the Boiling Spring Lakes Motel for a month. They were excavating an old tavern at Brunswick Town and were able to uncover multiple relics including glass, pipe stems, and pottery amongst other incredible finds. They were able to sift some of the dirt as they removed it from the dig sight. These were a great group of young people who had a passion for studying and preserving history. They took their mission very seriously.
The entire team hand-dug the dirt out with shovels and carefully sifted each bucketful of dirt with painstaking scrutiny, carefully picking out each piece of history. There were moments of glee when even the remnant of a jar, button, or tool was found.
When the young people returned to the motel every day, they were tired and dirty but eager to share their stories of what they found on that day with such intense eagerness and marked passion for the venture. They are hoping to come back next year if they can receive funding. The total number of students was twelve. There were a few graduate students, but mostly undergraduates participated.
Thank you Stephanie Bodner for sharing the photographs from the archeological dig and providing the information for this article about it. It is so wonderful that a Brunswick Town DAR member, owner of the motel where the crew stayed could provide our members with such valuable information. Go to Brunswick Town Fort Anderson’s Facebook page for additional information about this past week.
These are pipe stems. It was explained when the pipes would get
clogged, they were broken off and discarded.
