It's finally over.

Field school is over. Mark is flying up on Friday and we're driving back to Florida on Saturday. Here are some highlights of my experience.


The local newspaper cover, with me right up front.


Detail of the photograph.


Artists rendering of the farm & house.


Me & my digging partner, Madeline


That's me working back there.

Hot off the wire....

We have found George Washington's boyhood home. This is kind of a big deal. See it on the television news, look for me on CNN, and I might even be in National Geographic.

Washington's boyhood home found, but no hatchet

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
AP Science Writer

The archaeologists were delighted to at last find the remains of George Washington's boyhood home but got stumped when they looked for evidence of the cherry tree and rusty hatchet.

"This was the setting for many important events in Washington's life," David Muraca, director of archaeology for The George Washington Foundation, announced Wednesday.

Most biographies offer little detail of the first president's youth, so the discovery may provide insight into Washington's childhood, he said. The site is located at Ferry Farm, just across the Rappahannock River from Fredericksburg, Va., about 50 miles south of Washington.

Philip Levy, associate professor of history at the University of South Florida, found evidence that the house was a one-and-a-half-story residence perched on a bluff overlooking the river.

"If George Washington did indeed chop down a cherry tree, as generations of Americans have believed, this is where it happened," said Levy. The researchers said the artifacts they have recovered did not include a hatchet.

"There is little actual documentary evidence of Washington's formative years. What we see at this site is the best available window into the setting that nurtured the father of our country," Levy said.

Three likely locations were excavated over seven years. The site where the foundations of Washington's home were discovered was built during the first part of the 18th century — Washington was born in 1732 — fit the type of house in which Washington would have lived and also yielded artifacts likely linked to his family.

"Now that we have identified the home, we can begin understanding Washington's childhood," Muraca said, as well as dispel some of the folklore surrounding the president's life. For instance, the tale of Washington's chopping down the cherry tree with a hatchet and confessing to his father has never been proven.

"We see a county-level gentry home," he said. Washington's father "was wealthy within the county ... not on the colonial level but locally important, and we see a home befitting that status." The house measured about 53-feet by 37-feet, with a central hallway and two rooms on each side of the hallway.

The eventual goal, Muraca said, is to rebuild the home as it was in the 1740s.

Levy and Muraca spoke at a teleconference organized by the National Geographic Society, which helped fund the work. Research at the location has continued for seven seasons.

The 113-acre Ferry Farm — itself a National Historic Landmark — was known as the former home of the Washington family, but previous attempts to locate the house itself had been unsuccessful.

Most of the wood from the home was reused by builders on other structures or was damaged in the Civil War, and part of the foundation eroded away, the researchers said.

But after digging through layers of dirt the archaeologists found two chimney bases and stone-lined cellars and root cellars.

The cellars held a large number of artifacts including pieces of the house's ceilings and painted walls, fragments of 18th century pottery and other ceramics, glass shards, wig curlers and toothbrush handles made of bone.

Muraca said they also recovered larger objects such as pieces of a tea set that probably belonged to George's mother, Mary Ball Washington; wine bottles, knives, forks and 10 pieces of a group of small figurines that might have stood on a mantel.

They also discovered a well-used pipe bowl, blackened from smoking, that was marked with a Masonic crest. Washington joined the Fredericksburg Lodge of the Masons in 1753.

"While we can't say that this was George Washington's pipe, we can wonder about it," Levy said.

And there were burned remains of a fire at the farm on Christmas Eve, 1740, which Washington mentioned in letters. During the Civil War the farm served as a staging site for Union soldiers attacking Fredericksburg.

Washington was known to swim in the Rappahannock and to take the ferry to Fredericksburg and grew to adulthood at the farm. But he spent less time there as he got older.

He eventually moved to his half-brother's estate at Little Hunting Creek, south of Alexandria, Va., later renamed Mount Vernon.

In addition to National Geographic, the research is funded by the Commonwealth of Virginia, The Dominion Foundation, the Mary Morton Parsons Foundation and many individuals.

Dateline, Fredericksburg

Stay tuned to the news on Wednesday, particularly the ABC World News. There's some exciting news from Ferry Farm!

William Byrd, Colonial Williamsburg, Yorktown....

More to come later.

Saturday heading south.....

Saturday I went to Richmond, VA with my new-found-friend, Gary. He's a teacher at University of Mary Washington, who just moved here, who I met in a bar, and who is very nice. He hasn't chopped me up into little pieces yet, so keep your fingers crossed.

We visited the Virginia capitol, a building designed by Thomas Jefferson. It was home to many famous things, including the acceptance of Robert E Lee to lead the Confederate Army, and the treason trial of Aaron Burr. Then we visited the Virginia Historical Society, where I got to see a painting of William Byrd II, my favorite Virginian. After that we ate burritos and drove back to Fredericksburg. Below are some pictures. It's 6:45pm and the rest of my evening will be spent with laundry!



Here is an excerpt from St. Paul's Episcopal Church's website:

(http://www.stpauls-episcopal.org/index.php/who/history_architecture/)
With the selection of Richmond as the capitol of the Confederacy in 1861, St. Paul's would become forever identified with the Civil War. General Robert E. Lee and his wife were lent a pew and attended services at St. Paul's whenever possible throughout the war. In 1862, Confederate President Jefferson Davis was confirmed as a member of the parish. Many male parishioners gave their lives in battle. The church undercroft was used as a hospital for wounded soldiers. While attending service on Sunday, April 2, 1865, President Davis was delivered a message from General Lee stating that Lee had to withdraw from Petersburg, and thus could no longer defend Richmond. Davis quietly left the church, and evacuated the Confederate government and army from the city that afternoon. Fires broke out that evening, destroying the downtown and spreading dangerously close to St. Paul's. General Lee surrendered his army at Appomattox the following Sunday.



The house where Robert E Lee lived in Richmond

The Virginia Capitol, which also served as the Capitol of the Confederate States of America


William Byrd, my favorite Virginian


Statue of George Washington in the Capitol rotunda


St. Paul's Episcopal Church


Where Jefferson Davis was sitting when he received news of the fall of the Confederacy.

Friday in NoVa (that's Northern Virginia for those who don't know)

Friday was spent in Alexandria, VA. As much as I hate to do it, go here to read the Wikipedia entry on Alexandria's history. The George Washington Masonic Memorial was first on our stop. It was built by Free Masons in the early 1900's as a tribute to their numero uno Mason, George Washington. It's really a giant tool to show the public the merits of Free Masonry, and how the father of our country, George Washington, became the man he was because of Free Masonry. Here are some highlights:

This building is on top of a 200 foot hill, and it stands 300 feet tall.....so it stands about 500 feet in the air. A fitting tribute to GW!


The view from the top.


It might be difficult to read, but this is a 1904 commemorative coin from the "Braden Town" Masonic Lodge.

The rest of the afternoon, after a nice lunch at a fish & chips place in Alexandria, we visited the Weems-Botts Museum in Dumfries. Parson Weems was the man who wrote the Washington biography that started the cherry-tree and coin-across-the-Rappahannock myths. It was interesting because the town is kind of run down and forgotten, and it seemed like the house-museum was a major effort to bring the town back to importance.

Countdown.....

7 days till I'm officially done with field school
8 days till Mark flys up
9 days till we start driving home
10 days till I get back home!!!!!!!!