Beth-
Over the years of doing CRM in upstate New York, I have heard several
personal accounts and local lore concerning architectural oddities
reputed to be UGRR related. These suggest a route north to Canada to the
east of Lake Ontario through the Black River Valley. Although these
anecdotes are not archaeological per se, and are hardly systematic, they
suggest the kinds of such remains that may exist out there. They also
suggest that while archaeological remains left by the fugitives
themselves may be hard to identify on the premises of such a house, they
sometimes do exist in the actual hidden spaces where they lodged.
In the village of Westmoreland near Rome, N.Y. there is widely believed
to be a tunnel running under the creek from a house that is now a Pizza
restaurant to the site of a barn (now in ruins) that once served as a
church. I have not spoken to anyone who has personally seen it.
Northward, just south of Boonville, there used to be a large vernacular
Greek Revival farmhouse (sadly demolished by a developer about five
years ago). A woman who grew up in it recalled that when her parents
broke through a wall in an attempt to enlarge one of the rooms, the wall
turned out to be a passage containing a few shoes and other debris.
When they planned to turn a sealed attic into an apartment for rental
purposes, they determined that the woodshed was the most practical place
to site a stair for it, only to discover that a hidden stair already
existed inside the wall at that location. Further north yet along the
valley, a young woman from Lowville told us that the house she grew up
in had a room with windows but no door. None of her family had ever seen
the inside.
At the very least, such anecdotes can suggest travel patterns.
Does this stuff qualify as crypto-archaeology, Ron?
Marty Pickands, New York State Museum
>>> [log in to unmask] 06/29/06 8:42 PM >>>
Dear All,
I was looking through the Histarch archives today, for references
to
archaeological work done at houses that were part of the UGRR. There
were a few posts from nearly 9 years ago asking about this, so I
thought I would re-kindle the question (without necessarily
re-kindling
the debate about the validity of this kind of research).
I am working with a group that is investigating a ca 1850 hose in Ohio
that has ties to the UGRR. I hopefully will be conducting some
excavations
there next year. I would like to see of anyone has ever worked at such
a
house, or has any references to archaeological work carried out at
houses
with the UGRR connection. I realize that finding evidence of freedom
seekers is challenging, given the ephemeral nature of their occupation
at
any one place. But there is still much we can learn about the people
who
built and lived in the house, help piece together the lives of those
who
helped with the UGRR, and possibly find evidence of the fugitives who
stayed there on their way North.
Thanks in advance for your help with this, feel free to reply on- or
off-list.
Beth Hoag, RPA
Cuyahoga Community College
Cleveland OH
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