In
April and May 2001, archaeologists, architectural historians, and cultural
historians from Cultural Resource Analysts, Inc. (CRAI) completed reconnaissance
archaeological investigations of the Lower Howard's Creek Nature and Heritage
Preserve at the request of the Clark County Fiscal Court. This survey, which
involved locating and mapping visible historic archaeological features and
more detailed architectural recording of selected structures, marks a major
beginning in the development of an understanding of the historic landscape
of the Heritage Park which will structure the interpretation of the park for
the citizens of Clark County, the Commonwealth, and future generations of
park visitors.
In
this project CRAI has explicitly followed a landscape approach to the whole
of the Heritage Park as opposed to an individual site approach. The implications
of this are that we see the Lower Howard's Creek valley as an interrelated
system of human artifacts (structures) and human actions (the history of its
occupants) set in a distinctive natural environment, a circumscribed, steep
sided valley created by a small central Kentucky creek cutting down through
the Tyrone limestone to the level of the Kentucky River. Included in the field
inventory are standing structures (i.e. John Martin House), structures in
various stages of becoming "archaeological" (i.e. Martin's Mill),
structures which are purely archaeological (consisting generally of obvious
collapsed cellars and foundations), dry stone rock fences, a dam and associated
raceway and spillway, quarry areas and structures associated with rock quarrying,
roads and fords. Together these features form a historical "skeleton"
upon which further historic research in the Park must be based, and a core
of cultural features around which the cultural heritage of the park can be
developed and interpreted.
Since it was abandoned
by human occupation in the 1930s the valley has become considerably overgrown.
Normal ecological succession has transformed open fields into various stages
of forestland. We glimpse the landscape of the past through a secondary forest
cover which most of the inhabitants of Lower Howard's Creek never experienced.
Rather, they knew it as an ordered landscape of enclosed fields and grazing
livestock, fenced house lots, trim, well maintained structures, and roads
and paths marking the constant coming and going of inhabitants and visitors.
This presentation will provide insights to life at this early frontier industrial
center and discuss future research strategies.
View
the Powerpoint show prepared by CRAI and Grant Day
Read
news story written by Wes Moody for the Winchester Sun.
