By Patrick Corcoran
This certainly was an exciting week at the West Point Foundry; the Blast Furnace and East Bank House continued excavations, and we took an enlightening field trip to a working foundry. This week was also special because our expedition was aided by the help of this season's first week-long volunteer. Johanna Kahn, a New York City resident, helped the team at the East Bank House. Through her, and all volunteers who have a passion to learn and ponder the past, more information can be explored and recorded, therefore our breadth of knowledge is expanded and strengthened. THANKS JOHANNA!!! Your dedication in volunteering is much appreciated and will hopefully encourage others to do the same.
Super Square Ironwork, specializing in 'restoration, fabrication, and repair,' tantalized our group on Monday's field trip. Owner, proprietor, and educator, Dean Anderson, along with his assistant, Bret, were nice enough to show us the basics of blacksmithing, sand casting, and aluminum pouring. These skills were extremely effective in visually aiding our group to the realities of life around West Point Foundry in the boom days. The only big difference was the sheer scale of the West Point Foundry's equipment; multi-ton hammers, powered by Foundry Brook, beating out enormous amounts of wrought iron, instead of a much smaller electric hammer shaping a fire poker. Dean’s foundry is on a smaller scale, but the same principles are utilized. Another difference would be the molten aluminum which was poured. West Point Foundry poured iron and some brass, which have much higher melting points than aluminum. The sand molds that Dean made for us were done in much the same way they would have been done historically. As a matter of fact, he used some tools out of his century old molding kit! Thanks Dean and Bret for helping bridge the old with the new and allowing us to understand the fundamentals of these ancient skilled crafts. For more information on Super Square Ironworks, they're located in Newburgh and can be reached at 800-823-5344.
Meanwhile, at the West Point Foundry, much more progress has been accomplished this week. Graham and I completely finished excavation unit 9M, which we had been working on for weeks; a 2x2 meter pit of mystery and intrigue. The whole point of the unit was to determine the interface between the blast furnace (ore heated with iron sinking to the bottom) and casting shed (molten metal drained into bars, or 'pigs'), along with a beautiful cut stone retaining wall and water drainage system (tailrace).
A large portion of this excavation was going through layers of rubble on a slope, which were two foreign scenarios for me. Working at Thomas Jefferson's Poplar Forest, the aged T.J.'s retreat estate, near Lynchburg, VA, was my first archaeological dig. The whole experience was phenomenal, but all the larger units we opened were around the main house, or 'Curtilage' which was landscaped level, for the most part and I never saw areas of "rubble" there. Now, 9M, or 'The Pigpen,' as it was so endearingly referred to due to its amounts of mud, ended up posing more questions than solving puzzles.
The grand feature of the now finished unit was an upright cooper's barrel. Most of the wood has rotted away, but its upper hood was uncovered by us. We bisected it, which means we only excavated half of it in order to get a profile sketch of its interior. This proved very interesting since its contents were deposited in multi-colored layers.
Up at the East Bank house, Evan and Jim uncovered a much awaited feature. Weeks prior, when the team had been doing STP's (shovel test pits) of the whole yard, they came down on a few cut stones that looked to be in course with each other. A unit was finally opened up and after pulling many artifacts from the earth (mostly wire nails bent at 90 degree angles), Jim and Evan discovered that the stones were, in fact, cut and there was a thick line of them, on line with the eastern wall of the back of the house. Was this an extended foundation of the house? A tool shed? An outbuilding of some sort? A wall? A walkway???
These are the questions that archaeologists ask on a routine basis. That is the allure of the field…plunging into the dark unknown in hopes of bringing to light the knowledge of our past. Only then can we acknowledge our historic accomplishments, venerate our present feats, and enter the future with a stronger grasp of who we are and where we are going.
