Grid by grid. Line by line. 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.
Cemetery site
Carl Feagans, an archaeologist based in Golden Pond, Ky., with the U.S. Forest Service at the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area, said he was eager to try the ground-penetrating radar over 300-plus cemeteries in the national forest he covers.
Feagans got to experiment with the cemetery site adjacent to the Leetown hamlet location. Park officials and University of Arkansas archaeologists confirm the site is a cemetery based on one unique gravestone of a child, dated four years after the battle. But they are unsure if other burials lie in the area, perhaps soldiers killed in action at the Leetown battle.
Fieldstones lay flat on the other side of the cemetery clearing. "But are they connected to the cemetery?" Lockhart asked. "Any way, we will leave them laying."
Feagans said he can feel the depressions in the known cemeteries as he walks in the Kentucky forest. He felt the same conditions in Pea Ridge.
"We certainly want to know if it's a cemetery, so we can interpret and manage it," said park superintendent Kevin Eads. "It is a linchpin in the park. What they find can enhance or even change the story (of Leetown) we talk about. We don't talk much about civilian life before -- and certainly not after -- the battle.
"If nothing else, we would like to know where the graves are to show respect."
Clare Connelly, an archeological technician with the Midwest Archeological Center, carried an earth-resistance meter across grids at the cemetery site.
This piece of equipment, which could be loosely likened to looking like a garden gate, measured resistance of an electrical current passing through the soil, explained Kris Lockyear, a senior lecturer (similar to an associate professor) in archaeology at the University College of London. Water in the ground conducts the electrical currents, he said. The current flowing through stones shows high resistance, as it is difficult for the current to pass through. But ditches, which might contain water, show low resistance, as electricity easily passes through water.
Measuring resistance can be a slow process, Lockyear said. The user physically picks up the light-weight piece of equipment, setting it down at one-meter intervals. A quick beep of the machine indicates the reading has been taken.
"I suspect, that given the soil here, this (survey) is not going to be very successful," Lockyear said. "But sometimes, I'm surprised."
The equipment works best when searching for stone buildings, roads and historic monuments, but not prehistoric remains, Lockyear continued. Most recently, he has used the equipment to explore a Roman-built road at Verulamium in Hartfordshire, England, about 25 miles north of London. He also works with groups of amateur archaeologists, he said.
Testing technology
Using one of the park's split-rail fences as a support, David Maki of Archaeo-Physics Geophysical Survey in Minneapolis was conducting an experiment with a relatively new technology -- an electromagnetic conductivity meter, he explained.
"Supposedly, it can map buried objects at a depth greater than a metal detector. But it's not understood yet what kind of signal it would give on a Civil War bullet," he said as he held a bullet between his fingers.
So Maki duct-taped together some plastic dowels and marked them at 5-centimeter interval. He would then place the bullet next to each marking and take a reading, which he jotted down in pencil in a pocket-size notebook. He was noticing changes in the readings at about 30-centimeters along the homemade ruler. "We will have to figure out if it's 'noise' or an actual reading," he said, noting that he will run this same test and many others before the reading will be considered correct.
Nearby, a field was filled with yellow and red survey flags marking hits of ferrous (iron) and nonferrous metals found with state-of-the-art metal detectors.
"Of course, it's all going to be farm scatter," Lockhart said. "But whether it's scattered from 1860 or 1960, we'll have to find out."
Members of the Mayfield family lived in a house on the site when the park was established in the 1960s. The house had been expanded over the years since the war, but parts remained from the original structure built circa 1840.
Editor's note: This is the second in a three-part series.
Community on 06/14/2017