Unfortunately, in Pensacola we have experience with many hurricanes, both
archaeologically and current.
The Gulf coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Northwest Florida have social
and economic connections that began with the permanent settlement of
Pensacola by the Spanish in 1698. They had tried to settle the bay in 1559,
but after a hurricane destroyed most of the ships of the Luna expedition,
the Spanish abandoned Pensacola Bay until 1698, when they got word that the
French were planning a settlement there. Indeed, the Spanish had just begun
their first fort here when the French arrived. The French continued west to
found a settlement at Biloxi, MS and then another closer to Pensacola at
Mobile in 1702. Thus began a relationship between rivals who many times had
to depend on each other for survival: many more Pensacolians would have
starved without French food. Two of the reasons for French subsistence
success in the area were the fact that they had better agricultural soils up
river, and they had much larger local Indian populations who could supply
the colonists with corn. Pensacola's Indian populations were already very
small at that point. There were few present as early as the Luna
expedition - maybe because of early contact with the 1539 Soto expedition
pilot who sailed back to Pensacola for several years looking for his leader.
The Spanish officials attempted to stop trade between the colonies several
times, but need usually overshadowed the rules. Although mostly illegal,
many of our documents from the first 2 settlements here include goods and
money that were requested to repay the French, first at Mobile and after
1718, at New Orleans.
I don't know how many hurricanes New Orleans has suffered through, but we
see patterns in the Spanish colonial records for Pensacola that will sound
familiar to us in Florida over the past 10 years. We completed excavations
at the 2nd Pensacola settlement, Santa Rosa, in 2004, and I am writing the
report (that's why all this is so fresh in my mind!). At the 1st Pensacola,
Santa Maria, there is mention of only a few large storms between 1698 and
1722. One of these (1705) took out a ship in port that our underwater
colleagues excavated a few years ago. The French took the 1st Pensacola
from 1719 through 1722, and when they gave it back, the Spanish moved their
settlement onto the barrier island that protects the pass into the bay. Bad
idea. In the 30 years that the presidio was occupied, they had 8 major
storms. It seems that when hurricanes are spread out even at 10 year
intervals, the memory of the devastation fades. That was the case in the
early years of Santa Rosa, but then they just got slammed repeatedly. Sounds
very familiar.
The Santa Rosa presidio was hit in 1734, 1740, 1741 (big one), and then they
were spared until 1751, when they had two hurricanes, one in August and one
in October. In 1752, they had THREE: August, October and November. The
November storm blew for 3 days and destroyed the town. This totals 5
hurricanes in 2 years, plus there were at least two more on the south
Atlantic coast in 1752, one in September and one in October. That led to
their abandonment of the island presidio for the mainland in modern downtown
Pensacola. Unfortunately, we seem to be in such a pattern of big storms for
the last couple of years - including the largest of them all with Katrina.
Pensacola suffered a big hit with Ivan in Sept 2004, then Dennis this June,
and we got the very edge of Katrina. That doesn't include the tropical
storms that have done their own damage. We were very lucky this time.
Archaeologically, we see many features at Santa Rosa that can be explained
by hurricanes. There are areas of the site that have large storm surge
deposits of sand that were dumped when the water receded. There are also
areas of erosion and subsequent deposition that produce rather faint (it's
beach sand, it's all faint) unconformities. We do also see some piles of
debris that weren't buried, but rather pushed over into the nearest
depression. After one of these storms, digging a hole for debris (or any
other reason) means hitting the water table after just a few inches. This
area had a drought for 5 or so years before 2003 when we opened excavations
at Santa Rosa, and then nature tried to catch up, dumping water on us and
increasing the water table tremendously. It was challenging to figure out
logistics under the circumstances.
Other evidence of storms includes multiple building and repair episodes. All
structures were made of wood except a stone powder magazine and a brick
building which were the only ones to survive in 1752. It also appears that
the earliest public buildings were also moved back off the bay shore after a
couple of storms, indicating erosion along the beach. Early structures in
the central and extreme western parts of the site seem to be very modest,
and then larger public and higher status structures are superimposed on the
smaller ones. In one area, we had 6 to 7 building/repair episodes in an
area of about 15ft x 40ft.
Perhaps the biggest piece of evidence from the final destruction by
hurricane is the make-up of the artifact assemblage. It includes many small
personal items that were lost in the sand.
After Hurricane Ivan in 2004, some of the modern houses on the beach in the
same area showed very similar patterns of deposition/erosion, and another
pattern that I had not thought of - we call it "artifact soup". When the
walls of a room (or structure) remain standing through the storm surge, the
water brings in sand, and picks up everything left in the room, swirling it
around as waters wash in and out, and then after the water recedes (if it
happens slowly enough and the walls hold up) the sand and other materials
settle, they look like they have been stirred with a giant spoon. I think
we see that at Santa Rosa in one area, as well.
We have still not been able to see the site since Ivan. It is on NPS land
near Ft. Pickens, and they have literally had the road wiped out 3 times
with Ivan, Tropical storm Arlene, and then Hurricane Dennis. They've taken
so many hits, it must be tempting to give up.
We have many people here who have evacuated from Louisiana and Mississippi
to Pensacola. We recognize that hollow look they have on their faces. Many
businesses and homes here are just being re-occupied since the 2004
Hurricane Ivan hit us so hard, and that was almost exactly one year ago. I
cannot imagine how the colonial settlers survived on that exposed island in
1752. The number of stories of people spending 6 hours in the tops of trees
during Katrina is astounding. This kind of weather pattern is not new -
maybe some day we will all remember that living on the Gulf Coast has it's
costs. And some of those are very, very high. We should expect it to happen
again. It hurts, but it's still home.
Norma Harris
Dept of Anthropology
University of West Florida
Pensacola
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert L. Schuyler" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, September 02, 2005 3:09 PM
Subject: Re: Hurricane damage
>I want to second the "thanks" to Shannon Dawdy for an excellent precis on
>what has happened in New Orleans and the region.
> I also think that some discussion of the disaster beyond archaeology per
> se is not completely out of line in HISTARCH but
> Anita does have to rein us all back in now and then ...
>
> Back to Archaeology:
>
> (1) How many times since its founding has New Orleans been hit by
> major hurricanes?
>
> (2) Do these events leave a recognizable trace in the
> archaeological record? I assume it would be mass
> dumping of buildings etc. in pits after clean-up and
> rebuilding. A destruction layer?
>
> (3) Did major hurricanes cause real shifts in the culture of New
> Orleans; that is, did the population as a
> result swing way up or down and did the ethnic composition
> of the city change as a result?
> [If I went through one of these "events" I think I would,
> like General Butler, be headed back
> north.]
>
> Bob Schuyler
>
> At 01:26 AM 9/2/2005, you wrote:
>> >From New Orleans North:
>>
>>The human tragedy is immense, and of course we must
>>immediately do what we can to stave it. It will take weeks
>>before we know what flooding has done, and the news reports
>>are spotty and hard to trust as to the extent and geography of
>>the water damage.
>>
>>However, the oldest notarial records are actually in a vault
>>on the fifth floor of a large office building and are probably
>>safe. Across the street in the basement were the late
>>19th-century through 20th century notarial acts, which may be
>>decimated, as would be the mortgage and conveyance books
>>dating from the 1820s that include a wealth of information on
>>slavery. Still, staff members did know the value of these old
>>dusty books and it is possible they had a couple hours to move
>>them to higher floors before they evacuated.
>>
>>Collections at Tulane, UNO, the Public Library and the
>>Louisiana State Museum are all elevated at least one tall
>>floor. The Historic New Orleans Collection was in the process
>>of building a new archive storage facility to protect their
>>collections, so I am a little worried about those. The State
>>Museum, which was badly funded to begin with, will be
>>hard-pressed to conserve their 10,000 irreplaceable 18th
>>century documents from the French period if there is water
>>exposure through window breaks or leaks. The best that could
>>be done in that case is to put political pressure on the state
>>to transfer custodial care. Same I would say with the Public
>>Library's wonderful collection (the building is modernist with
>>glass walls, so I am a bit worried).
>>
>>My understanding is that there was some ground-floor flooding
>>in the French Quarter and certainly some looting of contents,
>>but that most of the structures there stood up fairly well --
>>after all, they've been through quite a few of these. Same is
>>true of the Garden District. I am still waiting to hear
>>specifics, though, on sites such as Madame John's Legacy, the
>>Ursuline Convent, or Pitot House, which some of you have asked
>>me about.
>>
>>But little do people realize that the historic value of the
>>hard-hit lower 9th ward and the neighborhood of Holy Cross was
>>tremendous as an extensive community of small, lower income
>>shotgun houses from the 19th century largely spared the 'urban
>>renewal' of the 20th century. Still, I'd lose all those
>>houses again in exchange for one of the lives lost within them.
>>
>>Unfortunately, the political geography of the past will
>>probably dictate historic preservation in the future. Since
>>its founding, the wealthy in New Orleans have crowded their
>>estates and townhouses along the high ground of the natural
>>levees, leaving the swampy swales to the poor. So all those
>>mansions and fancy townhouses valued by tour guides and
>>blue-haired architectural boards are probably in relatively
>>decent shape, but they will also receive the lion's share of
>>reconstruction assistance.
>>
>>Many of the quaint cottages of the largely black 'back of
>>town'neighborhoods may be wiped out, either because they were
>>heavily damaged if next to the levee breaks, or because even
>>with minor damage they will be last on the list of priorities
>>for repair or preservation. But will anyone care? These are
>>not neighborhoods where tourists are funneled. And the human
>>loss there may make it difficult to focus on preserving a now
>>painful past.
>>
>>Archaeologically, floods caused by levee breaks actually help
>>protect urban sites unless they are actively being excavated,
>>so I can't really be concerned about those. Rebuilding efforts
>>will likely do greater damage than the hurricane itself. Great
>>loss, however, has probably occured in the Barataria, Lake
>>Borgne and barrier island areas due to the storm surge.
>>
>>All this talk of abandoning New Orleans, the "loss of New
>>Orleans" or its cultural heritage that I am reading in the
>>media is causing a second kind of heartbreak. We need hope,
>>ambition, and a hell of a lot of help, not pessimism and
>>abandonment. New Orleans, I think it is safe to say, is a
>>world heritage site and needs the world's assistance.
>>
>>Back in the early 18th century, the French talked of
>>abandoning New Orleans within 10 years of its founding due to
>>hurricanes and political-economic disasters (Katrina also
>>being a combination). And for all practical purposes, the
>>French government DID abandon New Orleans after 1735. But
>>people stayed, rebuilt, and prospered in their own way.
>>
>>Disasters and their aftermath are also a part of New Orleans'
>>heritage. It wouldn't be what it is without them. For most,
>>it has never been easy to live in the Big Easy. Their
>>creativity and improvisation in survival, as well as their
>>joie de vivre, is the city's real 'cultural heritage.' People
>>who have only visited Bourbon Street have no idea what has
>>been lost, nor have they ever really met the city that will
>>survive.
>>
>>-- Shannon Dawdy
>>
>>
>>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>Shannon Lee Dawdy
>>Assistant Professor
>>Department of Anthropology
>>University of Chicago
>>1126 East 59th St.
>>Chicago, IL 60637
>>773-834-0829
>>
>>
>>Forgive me if my messages seem crude and brief -- please assume I am short
>>on time, not short of temper.
>
> Robert L. Schuyler
> University of Pennsylvania Museum
> 3260 South Street
> Philadelphia, PA l9l04-6324
>
> Tel: (215) 898-6965
> Fax: (215) 898-0657
> [log in to unmask]
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