Feature 31: Blacksmith Shop

"A blacksmith shop stood here by 1860 and operated throughout the nineteenth century. An important service center for the mill, archeological excavations revealed wall and forge locations. Identification of iron particles in the soil indicate the probable anvil location."

During the 2000 survey, a limestone forge base and associated surface scatter were discovered on the west side of the main road immediately to the north of a substantial spring.

Relatively large numbers of metal artifacts (>8.5 kg) were recovered from an initial non-intensive surface collection. This collection included: steel plate scrap, at least five mule shoe fragments, three iron wagon "boxes" (axle hubs), a wrought-iron axle clip, large iron L-brackets, iron strapping, an aqua-glass bottle-base, and Albany-slipped stoneware.

In 2002 a geophysical survey (using both magnetometry and resistance technologies) was conducted in the area of Feature 31. The test excavation phase at Feature 31 included six test units; two of the one-meter-by-two-meter units were used to bisect the forge box while the remainder were used to ground-truth archeo-geophysical anomalies suspected to indicate either structure foundations or blacksmith activity areas.

The two one-meter-by-one-meter units bisecting the forge box encountered a large limestone slab foundation for the forge. This had been covered with a thick layer of lime mortar to level the uneven surface and allowed courses of brick to be laid on the limestone base. The remains of what appears to be at least four courses of bricks were found in these units scattered along the outside periphery of the forge box, but historically forges are often constructed to "hip height" or taller to make working material in the forge as easy as possible. Layers of sand (like that used to mix with the lime mortar) and what appeared to be sub-soil had been used to fill the interior of the forge box.

A section of continuous limestone foundation was encountered in three of the one-meter-by-two-meter units that had been placed on the western side of Feature 31. Foundation stones appeared to be at least two courses thick in places and stones ranged from 20cm to almost 50cm in width.

A massive amount of metal, including wagon parts, a bolster spring, raw bar stock, a large cast iron pipe fragment and 3080.50g were recovered from units along this foundation wall.

A total of 181 (741.10g) intact cut nails were recovered from Feature 31, while only ten intact wire nails (30.55g) were recovered indicating that the structure is decidedly of nineteenth-century origin. The small number of wire nails may indicate repair in the waning years of the nineteenth or early twentieth centuries, but their scarcity does not support major twentieth-century use. Bricks and mortar were ubiquitous in the two excavation units bisecting the forge, but largely absent from other excavation units.

Aside from the bricks themselves, the most commonly recovered artifacts from Feature 31 are blacksmith related. A total of 5,190.20g of unmodified iron bar stock were recovered during the testing of Feature 31. Both round and square varieties of bar stock were represented, in various sizes.

Additionally, great amounts of both coal and slag were recovered from test excavations. Save for a tiny amount of similar materials recovered from the adjacent Feature 30, no other known feature within Van Hollow is associated with coal burning or the creation of slag as a by-product of combustion (scrap lumber was presumably the fuel sued to power the mill's steam engine and keep the residential hearths burning).

Finally, numerous general industrial artifacts were recovered, including many examples of bolts (or lynch pins) and nuts; 2 cast iron pipe fragments, 10 partial lengths of iron chain, a static drawer pull; a hand forged "punch-like" object; numerous unidentifiable iron objects (some possibly representing elements of wagons) a large amount of iron scrap metal. Both the size (penny weights) and spatial distribution of the nails recovered from Feature 31 could indicate that the shop may not have been a fully enclosed building. Perhaps four uprights (framed with 10d and 8d nails) supporting a roof over the work area (4d nails), but lacking framed walls and trusses. Another possibility is that the structure was extensively salvaged this could account for the removal of larger to moderate pennyweight nails while leaving smaller pennyweights intact. At any rate, the pennyweight distribution at Feature 31 radically differs from the pattern at Feature 9, a fully framed domestic structure of comparable age.