Grid by grid.
Line by line.
Park arborist identifies tree of knowledge
Jami Lockhart and his compatriots at the Arkansas Archeological Survey have to correlate all the data from each piece of equipment before big discoveries could be made. Archaeologists from around the world descended on Pea Ridge National Military Park last month for a workshop in the latest technology presented by the Midwest Archeological Center of the National Park Service in Lincoln, Neb.
But one big piece of the puzzle came immediately — and not from one of the archaeologists: Curtis Tilghman, an arborist for the national park, recognized a tree.
Lockhart, director of the computer services program for the Arkansas Archeological Survey, showed Tilghman 1960s pictures of the Mayfield home that sat in the Leetown clearing when the park was established. Growing just off the front porch of the house was a small tree.
“It was a catalpa tree,” Tilghman said. “I said, ‘I think I know where that tree is.’”
To the arborist, the tree was easily recognizable by its branch structure, a hole and a “cat face” — a wound in the tree that had grown over, but not completely healed, Tilghman said. “The branches, everything, matched up,” he said.
Today, the behemoth of a tree lays in the middle of the Leetown hamlet site — it blew down just last year, Tilghman said.
Tilghman’s identification showed archaeologists the exact location in the field of the long-gone house and which way the house was oriented, Lockhart said.
The park staff also cut a piece out of the tree, with Lockhart planning to ask a University of Arkansas dendrochronologist to study the ring sequence and determine an age for the tree.
Park superintendent Kevin Eads also put Lockhart in touch with Greg Mayfield who lives just west of the park, the great-great-great-grandson of Stan “Wix” Mayfield.
His father, who is still living, was born in the 1930s and lived in Leetown.
“I was surprised how many of the family of Mr. Ruddick and Mr. Mayfield are still living in the area,” Lockhart said.
Lockhart, Tilghman and Kevin Eads, park superintendent, walked the hamlet site on the last day of the school, with Lockhart explaining the findings.
Then the group waded through knee-high weeds, stepped over a turtle, climbed a fence, faced thorny underbrush while walking downhill to a rocky creek bed, then up the creek bed to investigate a well believed to serve the Mayfield home. A rusty bucket for retrieving water was still attached to the concrete well.
“We use every bit of evidence to identify our findings,” Lockhart said.
Experts in geophysical remote sensing crisscrossed nearly every meter, every centimeter, of the Leetown hamlet and adjacent cemetery site at Pea Ridge National Military Park recently. Roughly 30 archaeologists, anthropologists, historians and researchers from around the state, nation and world came to the park for a workshop in the latest technology, presented May 15-19 by the Midwest Archeological Center of the National Park Service in Lincoln, Neb.
The technologies -- magnetometers, conductivity meters, resistivity meters, ground-penetrating radar, metal detectors, magnetic susceptibility instruments and drones -- are all noninvasive techniques available to investigate historic sites. Participants worked "hands on" in the Leetown area of the park. The grassy clearing was the site of a small community during the two-day Battle of Pea Ridge. Historians believe every available building was put into service as a hospital for the wounded at the battle March 7, 1862, in a nearby farm field.
The effort also provided the Arkansas Archeological Survey reams of data in advance of an excavation, starting this week, by University of Arkansas students.
"We are extremely fortunate to have a group of national and international experts present," said Jami Lockhart, director of the computer services program for the Arkansas Archeological Survey and an instructor at the workshop. "Going several times over this place is very important."
"With all the data presented this month, this is really an exciting time," said Kevin Eads, superintendent of the national park.
Ground-penetrating radar
"Walk straight, and look ahead (to an orange traffic cone on the far side of the field)," urged Salma Abou-Aly, a representative of the company Sensors and Software from near Toronto. Meliha Dogan was pushing a ground-penetrating radar device like she would a lawnmower.
The radar uses radio waves to see images under the surface of the ground, Abou-Aly explained. This piece of equipment could then provide a three-dimensional model, an image of a slice at any depth and position using the images in real life and coordinating with Google Earth.
But this equipment -- and others presented at the workshop -- don't reveal an object underground. Rather, the equipment shows anomalies. A difference from the base reading can indicate the presence of something blocking the radar waves, Abou-Aly explained.
An initial look at the results showed an anomaly at the site of a visible depression in the field, believed by park officials to be the remains of the main road through Leetown at the time of the battle. The same readings continued underground from the edge of the depression, perhaps indicating a road did run here and encouraging more investigation, Abou-Aly said.
Editor's note: This is the first in a three-part series.
Community on 06/07/2017