July 13^th and 14^th, 2002: Mountain Weather

“But the forecast called for clear and dry all weekend!”
- Unnamed Fox Gap Crew Member  

I heard similar complaints (and much worse) all weekend.  On Saturday it was just overcast and cool, with the occasional spritz of rain. By Saturday evening the rain fell steadily on our little field camp, and by dawn on Sunday the storm delivered what proved to be it’s final bow with a three hour deluge. 

One crew member began his day by emptying a quart of cold rainwater that had accumulated in one of his shoes: the shoe had passed the evening with it’s owner inside the tent!  

Mountains make their own weather, and thanks to the cooling and condensation that occurs when warm valley air rises upslope, that weather is often wet.Rain is just a fact of life here on the ridgetop, but it had it’s moments as well:  a solitary pine in the meadow softened by fog into a watercolor still life; damp camaraderie over an extra pot of breakfast coffee;  the cry of a Cooper’s Hawk swooping in and out of the mist. There are worse places to do field work.

And the fieldwork was well worth the battle against the rain.  This weekend’s work plan called for excavation units to be opened in a variety of locations where the remote sensing survey had identified anomalies, and in a location where the historic photographic record indicated the Wise Cabin may have stood. 

While a couple of these units yielded little new information, several contained substantial and surprising evidence of Fox Gap’s long history.  In a unit where several layers of modern fill sealed the old plowed surface of Daniel Wise’s field, a soldier’s clasp knife and what appears to be a fragment of shrapnel were encountered very close to the location of the percussion cap we found in June. 

  In two nearby excavation units, lead bullets, one almost certainly an unfired Union conical ball and the other a round ball, were accompanied by something quite unexpected, but not too surprising.  Both units contained small amounts of rhyolite; flaked stone left behind by Native Americans sometime in the very distant  past!  Fragments of an iron buckle were also found associated with one of the bullets.  

Meanwhile, in another area of the site, two adjacent units were opened up in the hope of relocating some portion of the cabin.  This location is very close to a concrete cistern (a tank for capturing and holding rainwater) that had been placed on site sometime in the 20^th or 19^th century (concrete has been used for such things since the 1840’s).  

We found that the excavation and placement of the cistern had disturbed a small area immediately around it, but we also found that much of the landscape in that part of the site is sealed beneath a layer of stone rubble.  The rubble may result from the excavation of the cistern, or it may have come from some demolition or filling activity.  

No matter how it got there, I was delighted to see it.  Rubble fill often seals completely undisturbed landscapes beneath it, protecting the artifacts and information from looters.  While we didn’t have time to remove the rubble this weekend, it’s a very high priority for early August when we return to Fox Gap, and find what lies below it. 

…and maybe the weatherman will get it right this time!