Volunteers needed to dig in and help Garfield museum with excavataion
Submitted by Garfield Farm Museum
Sign up now for archaeological excavations at Garfield Farm Museum in Campton Hills. Registration is now being taken for individuals who wish to help with an archaeological excavation beginning June 6.
Both novice and experienced volunteers are needed to help excavate, screen, wash and catalog artifacts in the vicinity of the original log house built in 1835 by the Culbertson family and later expanded in 1841 by the Garfield family. The excavation will be held from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 6-10 and 13-17. For details, call (630) 584-8485 or email to info@garfieldfarm.org.
To help accurately interpret, restore and re-create the 1840s conditions of the Timothy and Harriet Garfield’s farmstead and tavern, the museum started up a five-year archaeology program. Now in its third year, the program will continue with a two-week excavation in June and a second two-week excavation in late September/early October. Last year, more than 1,800 volunteer hours were recorded.
The research will be headed by James R. Yingst, director and chief archaeologist of Heartland Archaeology Research Program of Chicago and a research associate in archaeology at Garfield Farm Museum. The program is coordinated by Helen Bauer, an experienced amateur archaeologist and board member of Garfield Farm Museum’s Campton Historic Agricultural Lands.
Yingst has experience in Illinois and Wisconsin 19th-century sites and ceramics of the period. Bauer has participated in excavations in Asia, Europe, Central America as well as President James Madison’s home, Montpelier and Illinois’ Cahokia Mounds and Kampsville sites.
Volunteers must commit to a set schedule to participate. June’s work will be June 6-10 and 13-17. September’s two-week session will begin Sept. 26. They will be working alongside college and graduate school archaeology students. Volunteers, age 14 to 17, may participate with parent permission. Younger students accompanied by a parent or guardian also may participate.
Ultimately, a replica of the original log house that the Garfield family enlarged and made into an inn or tavern will be built. The research will help in this effort and will provide better clues as to how the Culbertson and Garfield families lived.
The Culbertson log house/Garfield log tavern stood in the fork of the Chicago St. Charles Road that branched northwest to Sycamore and southwest to Oregon, Ill. Culbertson originally claimed 440 acres of land that he improved with the house, a dug well, and had 30 acres in cultivation when he sold the claim to Timothy Garfield in 1841 for $650. Farmers hauling wheat to Chicago’s port caught the Garfields’ attention and they expanded the log house as an inn or tavern. The structure occupied a 20- by 50-foot area with a cellar that was discovered in the 2006 archaeology investigation. The house consisted of two sections and a kitchen to the west. Three first-floor rooms included the barroom and two chambers were on the second floor. The log house had slab siding with a roof of shakes bound down by poles according to the Timothy Garfield biography.
The historic integrity of the site and its documentation call for a thorough archaeological study to confirm and add to understanding the first settlement and development of farms in northern Illinois. To register, see the dig, or to financially contribute to the effort, call the museum at (630) 584-8485, email info@garfieldfarm.org or write to P.O. Box 403, La Fox, IL 60147.