Exciting Day
Thursday afternoon brought a flurry of activity at the excavation site. The archaeologists were busily sweeping away excess dirt and misting the site down with water. Why the sudden fuss? The Archaeological Research Center staff and volunteers were preparing for a press conference that would announce that enough funding was obtained by the Old St. Ferdinand Dig Committee to extend the Church excavation for an additional 2 weeks. Channels 2, 4, 5, 11, Florissant City Cable and a reporter from the Florissant Independent News were covering the conference and Florissant's Chief of Police, the Health Department, Parks Department, Street Department, City Clerk, Community Development, Director of Finance, and Councilman Tom Schneider were present when when Mayor Lowery made the announcement.
The mayor turned the podium over to Committee Chairperson Gretchen Crank and Principal Archaeological Investigator Joe Harl. Joe led the press on a tour of the presbytery, pointing out the kitchen, chimney area, bedroom quarters and the building's wall trenches and post holes. In his characteristic easygoing manner, Joe discussed how the artifacts were shedding light on French Colonial culture. The French selectively adapted certain British and American Indian traditions and the remaining artifacts are telling us what these settlers found interesting and important.
It was exciting to see the press and City employees mingling together to learn about and see the first excavation of a Colonial French site in the St. Louis area. And it has been especially exciting to know that we can now continue the excavation for another two weeks.
Visit us at Spanish Land Grant park, located on St. Ferdinand and St. Denis streets and take a peek into the past. Walk around the presybytery grounds, look at previously discovered artifacts and chat with the archaeologists about life on the frontier. The excavation site is open to the public Wednesday through Sunday from the hours of 9am -5pm.
For directions to the park, or additional information on our St. Ferdinand Church dig, please contact
Gretchen Crank (314)838-5085
gcrank@1789stferdinand.org
or
Mound City Archaeological Society at moundcity@missouriarchaeology.org
Be sure to check the blog often. Photographs of an interesting discovery will be posted soon!
