Pit 112: Level 1

Completed December 5, 2020 by Josephine Bachman, Teresa Mitchell, DC Locke, Odess and David Brinkman. This was a historic day in our dig as we moved outside of the fence to start another row of pits in what has proven to be a "hot zone." We had just enough room to do these pits and still stay at an acceptable safe distance from the 1960s gas line. The big question would be, how big was the trench for that gas line? One foot wide, or six feet wide? The width/depth of the trench and the disturbance it caused, could have a significant negative impact on what we may find. On this day, we were joined by new digger Josephine Bachman and veteran digger Teresa Mitchell. As we started digging the pit, we realized that we were overlapping (by a few inches) with the previous row of pits, so we adjusted for that. The results of level one were in line with other hot zone results, with a dozen Granby period artifacts found (and many brick pieces) and four Native American pottery pieces. The most interesting item, however, was a Buffalo Nickle found by Josephine. These nickels (made between 1913 to 1938) were prone to wear in the raised area where the date is placed. This Nickle was no exception as the date was completely erased. Since it was found in level one, our best guess is that it was dropped here in the 1960s (when these Nickles were still in circulation.) The date was probably already worn from its surface at that time. As usual, level one was very disturbed, so we could not detect any signs of a gas line trench.

Pit 112: Level 1 produced: Two pieces of pottery, seven glass, one Buffalo nickle coin, one iron, two charcoal and four Native American pottery.