Archaeology Surveys at the Chase Stone Barn
Town of Chase, Pulaski, Oconto Cty, WI
Daniel Krause built his house in 1887. Over the next few years he added several buildings to his farm, including the Stone Barn which was built in 1903. Today only the Stone Barn remains.
The Town of Chase purchased the Stone Barn in 2007 so they could protect it and make the property into an historic park.
The Stone Barn Committee felt it was important to try to find and document the sites of the other buildings before ground was broken for the driveway, parking lot, and other park development. Otherwise they will lose any opportunity they had to capture this history.
* Click Photos to Enlarge *
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Meet
Bob the
Digger.
In November 2009, Bob Fay from Old Northwest Research in Two Rivers, WI, was hired by the Town of Chase to conduct an archaeology survey on the Stone Barn property where old farm buildings once stood. Bob has nearly 40 years of experience doing archaeology and history in Wisconsin. |
| Bob walks the freshly plowed field where farm buildings once stood to visually look for artifacts laying in the dirt. |
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Many interesting artifacts
were found,
including old pieces of glass,
household ceramics, small tools, nails, fence insulators, and small pieces
of metal. Bob even found a tiny
white glass 4-hole button! Talk about finding a needle in
a hay stack!
It's amazing how these items could still be found considering how many times the field has been plowed over the last century. |
| A wood-framed wire mesh shaking screen is used to find artifacts in the soil. Shovels of dirt are dumped on top of the screen which is then manually pushed back and forth to allow dirt to sift through 1/4 inch wire mesh, leaving the larger artifacts on top. |
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Taylor, who is doing a story for the Pulaski News, listens to Bob describe the different artifacts he found in the plowed field. |
| Alvina and Sonny Sievert, life time residents and retired farmers from Chase, enjoy looking over artifacts found in the field. Alvina was able to identify several of the artifacts. |
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Bob moves on to the foundations of the old buildings that were once part of the farm. The foundations were only partially exposed, so Bob finished uncovering them with his shovel (a labor of love) until the entire floor of the foundation was exposed. This particular area is believed to be where the granary once stood. |
| An old photo from the early 1900's shows where the old buildings used to stand. Bob uses this photo to help him identify locations of foundations for excavating. |
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Once exposed,
the foundations |
| Bob moves on to the house foundation next, which was built around 1887. A traveling reporter for the Oconto County Reporter stated in their 1887 newspaper that Daniel Krause had a large and commodious house, which once completed would be one of the finest homes on the road. |
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When Bob started excavating the area that he believed was the house foundation, there was nothing but a pile of stones and brush. |
| As Bob began to dig around the area, he discovered a stone foundation which confirmed this was the location of the house. |
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Removing the stones and debris by hand was physically challenging to say the least. A small skid steer, operated by Richard Huben, who is the head of the town park commission, was used to help load the stones and haul them away.
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| As Bob excavated down around the stone footings, he discovered they were the walls of the house cellar. |
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Bob works tediously to expose the stone footings so he can outline and record the measurements of the cellar. |
| A backhoe, operated by Bob Pott who is the Town Public Works Supervisor, was used to carefully remove heavy stones, farm machinery, and debris that were inside the cellar walls. |
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The house is believed to have burned down in the 1930's. After the fire someone had cleaned out all the debris and it was then used as a dumping hole for stones, pieces of a Birdsell Clover Huller, and other metal farm equipment. |
| Click photo to the right to see some of the artifacts found so far. |
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Within a couple of days, all the stones and debris were removed to expose the cellar, which was much larger than originally suspected. |
| Once the cellar had been cleared, Bob found evidence where the cellar stairway had been. |
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A backhoe was used to carefully remove some of the fill in the cellar entrance. |
| If you look closely (enlarge the photo) you can see white doors with a big hinge on them located directly below the high window on the porch. These doors were the entrance to go down into the cellar. |
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Another old photo of the house shows that it was L-shaped. This told Bob that there was likely another foundation adjoining the cellar that he should look for. |
| Bob took a metal rod and
probed down into the ground east of the cellar foundation and
hit stone. This confirmed that there was another
foundation adjoining the cellar. You can see how it
continues past the cellar wall.
Bob will continue removing the topsoil to expose the rest of the foundation so it can be recorded. |
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A close-up of this 1887 house shows the rain gutters going across the middle of the house with a spout going down along the left center of the house. This spout drained the rain water into a cistern (holding area) in the cellar below. This water was then pumped up into the house. Photo taken around 1915.
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The cistern (which is no longer present) was in the northwest corner of the cellar. You can see how the mortar is smoothed over the stone walls. The cistern walls would have come out from each wall toward the center of the cellar to form a square holding area. |
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This cistern is from an old abandoned trading post in Langlade Cty, WI. It is a good example of what this cistern might have looked like. |
| In the southwest corner of the cellar there is a large hole going through the wall. There is also a small pipe coming out of the wall. It is believed the large hole (along with the concrete shaft laying on the ground above) was a sanitary sewer line added in later years. The iron pipe is believed to be for water from the stone-lined well nearby. |
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You can tell that these holes and fixtures were added at a later date because the original stones and mortar around them had been removed and then re-mortared. |
| Bob holds up another piece of iron pipe that was found in the cellar rubble that fits over the end of the water pipe protruding from the wall. |
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The original outhouse is the little structure on the far left side of the carriage shed. Bob will try to locate the outhouse and excavate it, as many "other" items were dropped down the privy hole back then, including household items like broken dishes, glass bottles, clay smoking pipes, pottery, etc. |
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Bob finds a brass piece to an old oil lantern that was embedded in the surface of the dirt near the house foundation. The round knob, called a "thumb wheel" turns the wick up and down.
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The stamped mark on the thumb wheel reads P & A MFG CO PAT JAN 16.83 (for Plume & Atwood Manufacturing Company Patent January 16, 1883). |
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Bob prepares to excavate around the cellar entrance. |
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Soil collected from the top of the stone wall foundation is sifted through the screen by hand to look for artifacts. Most of the items found so far are old square and wire nails and broken pieces of window glass. |
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It's day 11 of the
archaeology surveys and Bob has finished exposing both of the
stone walls |
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As Bob continues to excavate the bottom of the stairway he finds a very small concrete platform 2" off the cellar floor. He also found evidence of a door jam going up the stone cellar wall where a door would have been. Bob thinks the stairs were wooden and will look for evidence of the steps in the debris he collects. |
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A close-up of the north side of the house shows the white cellar doors below the window that would have set over the stone foundation. We are so fortunate to have these old photos. They were donated by Larry Krause, whose g-grandfather built the stone barn and house. This photo is believed to have been taken around 1915. |
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Bob proudly stands next to the cellar stairway which he excavated mostly by hand.
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| Bob takes the last pail of dirt which was excavated from inside the cellar stairway and looks for artifacts. The stairway had been filled in with dirt and stones. |
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The cellar once had wooden steps. There was a flat mortared platform at the top of the stairway, then mortar was smoothed over the dirt going down the sloped area to another mortared platform at the bottom. The vertical and horizontal grooves you see at the bottom of the sloped slab were used to hold the wooden stringers in place for the wooden steps.
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| Bob illustrates with his own 2x4 how a stringer for the wooden stairs would have been laid up against the sloped edge. The end of his 2x4 fits perfectly into the notched area shown in the picture above. |
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Another view looking down the cellar stairway. |
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You know you live in Wisconsin when an archaeologist has to wear blaze orange on opening day of deer hunting season to avoid getting hit by a stay bullet :-) Love the scarecrow, Bob! |
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The cellar is now completely excavated. Bob will continue looking for evidence of other building foundations in the spring. On behalf of the Town of Chase, we would like to thank Bob for all the hard work he has done so far to help us discover the history of the stone barn farm. Please make sure to check out the video below. If you would like to contact Bob with your questions or comments, please email him at: |
VIDEO
Click Photo Below
for more information about the
Chase Stone Barn
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