-- [ From: Lewis, Lynne G. * EMC.Ver #2.5.02 ] --
 
First, greetings to all my friends & colleagues out there.  The National
Trust's archaeologists (all 2 of them) have finally made it onto the "Info
Hiway."
I'm writing from Montpelier, home of James Madison (Jr.) 4th President of US
. Montpelier is located 4 mi. so. of Orange, (Orange Co.) Virginia.  The
Madison family owned Montpelier from 1723 - 1844.  Orange Co. was & is a
rural, agricultural county in the Va. Piedmont, located approx. 99 mi. SW of
DC, 1.5 hr. NW of Richmond and 28 mi. north and slightly east of
Charlottesville.
 
This summer we excavated a 6 ft. long "linear intrusion" (the length
determined by unit size, the feature is longer) that was a clay-lined,
stepped trench.  At one end of the trench a segment of wooden pipe, about 6
in. long and 4 in. exterior diameter was found.  At about the middle of the
pipe was a faint trace of what appears to have been an iron band encircling
it.  Artifacts from the trench were virtually non-existent (and non-dateable
) but the feature was encountered below the majority of occupation and is
certainly ante-bellum, almost certainly Madison period.  We have not had the
opportunity to pursue this archaeologically any further, since of course it
was encountered during the last week of field school.
 
We have documentary reference to a water system here - in December 1803
Frances Taylor Madison Rose (James' sister) wrote to him that "The ditch for
conveying water to the House has been completed for several weeks but Culp
never came to fix the pipes till last Monday" (Letter, Rose to Madison, 8
Dec. 1803, copy at the Papers of James Madison Project, University of
Virginia).  [Some things never change!]
 
Can anyone out there help us with 1) references for early water
systems/wooden pipes or  2) experience with excavation of water systems
(rural preferably) using wooden pipes.  We can send (fax probably best or
I'll learn to email a graphic) a sketch of the pipe itself and a
profile/plan view of the trench off-list if anyone feels that would be
helpful.
 
Thanks in advance for your help,
Lynne G. Lewis, Sr. Archaeologist, Nat'l Trust for Historic Preservation
Scott K. Parker, Montpelier Archaeologist
[log in to unmask]
voice  540 672-0008
PO Box 67
Montpelier Station, VA  22957