Anybody ever mowed or plowed the same field long enough to watch an old frame building completely disappear?
I've "discovered" some documents that indicate the 1894 location of one of the first Post Offices around here locally. It was only at that location for 5 years and then relocated to the general store where the town popped up.
There is a good possibility the actual location is presently under cultivation. I couldn't say for the last 100 years, but it apparently has been alternated as beans, pasture then alfalfa for at least the last 25 years; as reported by the current tenant.
My guess is it was a probably a balloon framed wooden structure, no more than 200 or 250 sq. ft. Other structures from that time period in this area were usually built on stone or brick piers with a short crawl space rather than a conventional concrete or aggregate foundation or footing.
My question to Mr. Cow (and anybody else that has some real good farming experience) is: What, if anything, could one look for as some sort of visual evidence? I can probably narrow my calculated search area down to a 10,000 s.f. area if I'm lucky.
Any armchair archeologists out there?
I'm guessing there was probably an outhouse. A well? Who knows. The Office was probably only occupied in daylight hours. The john & trash pile would be a great find, if I can locate the site.
I would almost bet you the lumber got salvaged for some greater good.
My first thought would be to look for the outhouse. It would have had a hole dug that would extend below cultivation. But then you'd have to scrape off the top couple of feet of top soil to find it.
You've probably already done this, but look for old county atlases, maybe go to the USGS site for historical maps, Library of Congress map division, and, finally, look for old post office maps. I think they had maps showing all their facilities, delivery routes, etc.
I farm some ground where there was an old cabin that got burned down by the night riders. Still occasionally turn up a limestone rock that was probably a foundation stone. Small pieces of glass, brick probably from a chimney, pottery, etc. You are probably in some flat country but around here you expect to see something like that on the high spots, near an old cistern or well.
This is just like your standard survey answer.....it depends.
1894 predates Oklahoma statehood by 13 years. Anything erected prior to 1907 or thereabouts would have been subject to pre-emption by no-account scoundrels holding dubious official-looking documents.....or simply, brute force. E.D. Nix was playing Marshall Dillon back in those days. The ragamuffin Dalton Gang and the Doolin Gang had a lot of fun for a few years. Belle Starr had become a household name in the years leading up to that time.
Many public structures, including school houses and churches, were moved around as the center of activity changed. It is possible this structure was put on skids and pulled to a different location for either a similar or totally unrelated use. On the other hand, if there was a strong influence suggesting things would be stable, there might have been a short rock foundation placed under the perimeter of the structure to raise it above the influences of heavy downpours. If so, some or all of those stones may have been left in place unless they were needed elsewhere. We have records indicating some early stone buildings were built using stones robbed from the graves of Osage Indians as they buried their dead above ground, surrounded by rocks to prevent coyotes and other carnivores from getting to the deceased.
It would make sense that there may have been a well or outhouse nearby, but that would depend on how lonely this structure was at the time. There may have been such facilities already in place near other businesses or homes, if any.
I have what appears to be a single room, frame building on the farm where my grandparent's lived. It was built in the 1880's as a sick room for the owner's son who had contracted one of the highly communicable diseases that were prevalent in those days while he was away attending college (the college had to close for months). It had been sort of stuck onto the back of my grandparents' house long before they owned it. It rests on a foundation of large sandstones more than two feet high. The building has been allowed to deteriorate since 1964 but is still about seventy percent intact. So, your building should still be there unless moved, torn down or experienced a fire or tornado.
I wouldn't get my hopes too high, for something used for 5 years over a century ago, but you could get lucky.
It would be worth looking at every Google Earth historical image and older aerial photos that you have access to. You MIGHT find a spot where the crops grow better or worse to tell you where to look closer.
My relevant experience was volunteering for a few days on an archaeological investigation of a trading post that operated for several years in the 1830s-1840's. Since that time the field has been cultivated. They had about 10 people (rotating volunteers) working with a couple archaeologists every day for about two weeks.
When the weather permits, and the ground is being cultivated, go walk that area looking for artifacts, and flag every place you find something. Any foundation fragments, charcoal, metal objects, broken china, etc. will have been scattered some by farming, but will still have a concentration centered on the site of activity. The clustering of flags will narrow down the location.
Swing a treasure hunting metal detector over the area. It may produce some hits. And try the magnetic locator in case there is a longer piece of iron buried deeper.
At the project I helped on, we did surface collecting with flag placement in 10-meter squares. Then metal detector sweep with different flags (not digging up anything at that point, but in your case I would). The next step was a couple dozen auger test holes, randomly placed in the areas of high flag concentration. The color of the soil was recorded in 5 cm increments to detect transitions between the plow zone, underlying soil, and flood depositions. All dirt removed was screened (1/4" mesh) for artifacts, which were recorded with location and depth where found.
A couple of the auger tests hit storage and/or trash pits, which were then excavated in 1-meter square units, again with meticulous care to screening and recording each layers.
You probably won't put this much effort into it, but maybe the description will give you ideas.
What was the name of the post office? Did the name change later?
> What was the name of the post office? Did the name change later?
I'm gonna remain silent (for now) as to the name and location. I want to be the first one (that I know of) to get out there and root around. 😉
Here's an aerial of the site:
An 1898 dependent resurvey shows the two roads whose roadbeds are still plainly visible. The intersection of these two roads falls almost right on top of the center of section. The 1899 dependent resurvey has the road intersection almost 1000' in error. This would make sense due to the fact they only ran the exterior lines.
The earliest quad sheet I can fins is 1905. It is of such scale that it's difficult to derive any data. It does not show the building. The P.O. only shows on the 1898 resurvey. (EDIT: I've found some documentation that details the P.O. and the length of time it was at this location).
I believe the structure sat well N & W from the intersection due to the terrain. The cultivated field is 5 or 6 feet higher than where the old n-s road bed is located.
I've only been at the site once and only spoken to one owner of the plowed field. He's about my age and fairly familiar with the area. He's never heard or seen anything about an old P.O.
If you could find an old black and white air photo, I'll take a stab at some amateur remote sensing. I used this method to find foundations of buildings from the early 18th century about 16 years ago as part of a research project while in college for Geomatics. It was the site of "The Great Deportation of the Acadians" where the english shipped off all the Canjuns form Nova Scotia to Louisiana.
One of the places my dad farmed had been in the path of a serious tornado. The house and several outbuildings were destroyed. However, the tornado had been on the ground for much of a nearly 25 mile-long path before reaching that point. By the time I was no longer involved with that farm it had been roughly 23 years since the tornado. Everything imaginable had magically appeared at one time or another over the years over a large portion of the 120 acres of cropland. I don't remember ever getting a flat tire because of some sharp object, but there were plenty of opportunities. We routinely would toss something into the pickup bed that we had acquired on the most recent lap across the field. Plates, cups, pottery, metal objects of all sorts, bits of harness, bolts, cans, you-name-it. It had been about a dozen years after the tornado before I was working there so most organic-based items had decayed away or to very small, non-harmful sizes. I do recall finding a few odd pieces of wood.
I relate this story as a warning that, in tornado country, not everything found in a field was put there by man.
BTW, after the tornado left this farm it crossed the road to destroy a church and cemetery before killing the second of two victims along its path. It was on the ground about three more miles, eating at least six more houses before lifting completely. There had been a burial in the cemetery earlier that day. The story goes that the man had insisted he wanted to be buried somewhere else when his time came and would dig himself out and move if buried in this cemetery. He didn't have to do any digging. Almost all of the fresh dirt was sucked away from his coffin according to eyewitnesses the next day.
1893 Quad Map
Try that on for size. Apparently they were doing some serious work in your neighborhood in 1893. By using the names of adjoining maps you might find something using the geonames.usgs.gov site.
Dude, if it's been flat broke and drug every other year or so, I'd say that you MAY find some evidence when the flat break it again, otherwise, that monster 16' disc and drags made of skidder tires can really terra form ditches or fill in low areas.