I thought some readers of HISTARCH might be interested in this posting
from SWA SASIG. Pin-flagging nails?..hmmmm.
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Subject: Fort Douglas UT
Author: "Brian W. Kenny" <[log in to unmask]> at NP--INTERNET
Date: 5/5/98 7:28 PM
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:
DIGGING UP DEBRIS HELPS ARCHAEOLOGISTS UNEARTH FORT DOUGLAS PAST 05/04/98
02:31AM BY DAN EGAN THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The
soldier who tossed out this whiskey bottle likely wanted it buried for
good. It was empty _ nothing more than a painful reminder of another
night squandered. He had no idea the buzz that this and other old trash
would bring to archaeologists 100 years later. Fort Douglas, established
on the east bench of Salt Lake City in 1862, is
being poked and prodded for clues about its past as part of a $500,000
archeological survey the federal government is requiring before
construction starts on new University of Utah student housing. The
dormitories will double as the Olympic Village for the 2002 Winter Games.
The U.S. Army transferred 51 acres of Fort Douglas property to the
university earlier this decade, and final touches are being put on a
12-acre land transfer upon which much of the Olympic Village will be
constructed. Tom Nycum, University of Utah Vice President for
Administrative Service, said the transfer should go through in September,
and initial work on the $97 million project is scheduled to begin this
summer. None of the fort's historic structures will be torn down for the
new construction, but the archaeological survey is extending beyond the
12-acre parcel. There are currently eight separate dig sites scattered
about Fort Douglas as part of the study. "We're looking at 130 years of
stuff on top of stuff on top of stuff,'' said U. of U. archaeologist
Duncan Metcalfe, one of the project leaders. Beyond bottles, a crew of 10
diggers has found things like building foundations, marbles, nails,
animal bones, buttons, buckles and shoe soles. And more nails. ``There is
so much junk under these grounds,'' said Metcalfe. ``We put a pin flag
down every time we hit something with a metal detector, and the whole
place ended up looking like the back of a porcupine.'' But junk is
treasured in the archaeological world, even if it was generated during a
time when meticulous records were kept about business at the fort,
ostensibly built to ensure the safety of travelers along the Overland
Trail. During its early years, the soldiers at the fort made it their
business to keep a close eye on the residents of Salt Lake, much to the
consternation of Mormon church leader Brigham Young. Most of the stately
housing and barracks that face the fort's parade ground were constructed
between 1874 and 1876. The fort was heavily used during World War I, and
the 38th Infantry made Fort Douglas headquarters between 1922 and 1940.
The fort reached its peak of activity during World War II, when about
1,000 military personnel were permanently stationed there and 2,000
citizens were employed. All along the way the military did a stellar job
of keeping records, but those documents don't go too far in telling about
daily life at the fort in its early days. ``They did a good job of
recording what was built, how many men were here. The skirmishes. But
they (records) don't deal that much with the day to day life; the foods
they ate, what they did for recreation,'' said Betsy Skinner, project
co-leader. The mystery about life among the enlisted men is further
buried by the fact many were illiterate and could not keep journals.
Evidence from the dig so far shows the soldiers did a stunning amount of
ditch digging and ditch filling. Three channels near Red Butte Creek were
entirely filled, often with hand tools. ``They worked them like
bandits,'' said Metcalfe. ``It probably kept them out of trouble,'' added
Skinner. Not entirely. The abundance of bottles reveals there likely was
a good deal of drinking that went on during the soldiers' time off.
Looking for clues about life 100 years ago is painstaking work. The
excavators pick what they hope will be prime digging sites by using old
maps. They use shovels to dig 4-foot deep trenches. And the trenches are
mapped in grids as small as a couple of centimeters. Skinner said the dig
should go into summer, and when that's completed the items harvested will
be further analyzed and cataloged. When work starts on the Olympic
Village, crews will be on hand in case any of the big machinery
inadvertently unearths anything archaeologically valuable. All this fuss
and effort to dig up trash would likely force chuckles from the whiskey
drinking soldiers who called Fort Douglas home 100 years go. Or maybe
not. ``They'd probably be glad to see somebody else digging trenches,''
said excavator Chris North, standing waist-deep in a ditch.
Associated Links:
http://www.staff.uiuc.edu/~rcunning/kwescape.htm
Escape of interned civilians at U.S. War Prison Barracks, Fort Douglas,
Utah
http://www.lib.utah.edu/spc/mss/ms518/ms518.html#History
Fort Douglas
http://www.staff.uiuc.edu/~rcunning/ftd.htm
Fort Douglas War Prison Barracks Three
http://staff.uiuc.edu/~rcunning/intern.htm
German and Austro-Hungarian Internment during World War One in the United
States
http://www.worldwar1.com/links.htm
the Great War
http://wwwlibrary.csustan.edu/bsantos/army.html
U.S. Army Rehabilitation Center at Turlock, California, 1942-1945
http://www.staff.uiuc.edu/~rcunning/zuck.htm
Zuckschwert, A. Commander of the Gunboat Cormoran
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