Excavation of the Blacksmith Shop - Garth, 1947 Archeological Report

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(Web editor's note by C. Boehle - Garth likely found the Blacksmith Shop corral, instead of the actual Blacksmith Shop. In the 1960's, archaeologist Paul Schumaker again searched for the site and found what is believed to be the correct location of the Blacksmith Shop).

Historical information on the blacksmith shop is extremely meager. Even the nature of the building material used was doubtful, although the fact that it was built in December and January, 1841-42, led us to surmise that it must have been of wood rather than adobe. Most drawings of the mission site, as well as most descriptions, put the shop between the mission house and the mansion house. We concentrated our efforts in that area and soon encountered a long ridge of burned earth deposit containing typical artifacts such as sherds, thin window glass, and bone buttons. Though at first we thought it might be an adobe wall, it turned out to border both sides of an old irrigation ditch which we later learned had carried water to stock corralled in this area. M. W. Swegle, farmer and former owner of the land, had moved dirt from the mansion house ruin (100 feet to the east) and used it to build up the banks of the ditch. Near one end of the ditch, however, we located a large bed of mixed charcoal and dirt that in places reached a thickness of ten inches. Some of the charcoal fragments were three inches across though most were smaller. In a few instances we encountered sections of small logs, the largest being nineteen inches long by five inches in diameter. Most, however, were three inches or less in diameter, obviously the remains of burned poles or branches of about this size. The charcoal bed assumed the shape of a large hexagon about thirty-five feet across the front or west side and thirty-two feet from east to west, which subsequently proved to be the shape and dimensions of the shop, slightly enlarged and irregular in outline.

Three levels were recognized, disregarding the overburden of mansion house fill which covered a small area at the northwest corner of the blacksmith shop ruin. The artifact content from floor 1 to 2 was essentially modern. In the charcoal bearing stratum-from floor 2 to 3 - the artifact content was meager but of more genuine antiquity. Floor 3 exhibited packing only along the east quarter of the ruin. This was unexpected, for undoubtedly the shop had a dirt floor which must have been subject to considerable packing during the six years in which the shop was used. In most of the shop the charcoal stratum rested on a soft and extremely uneven layer. This with the dearth of artifacts led to the conclusion that the soldiers who came in 1848 and stayed seven months must have dug through the ruin in search of scrap iron, a very valuable commodity in that day. It is almost certain that they took the anvil and some other tools. (13) Their digging may account for the fact that more charred timbers were not preserved nearly intact, but were broken up into small pieces and scattered throughout a ten-inch layer of soil. Undoubtedly the structure supported a dirt roof as did all the other mission buildings except, perhaps, the grist mill. It was this dirt roof which fell and smothered the fire so that much of the wood turned to charcoal rather than ash.

At the floor 3 level and in some cases as much as six inches above numerous post holes were found. The fire which destroyed the structure had consumed the posts, even eating out below the ground level, so that the post holes were filled with a mixture of charcoal, ash and dirt which preserved the squared outlines of the posts and made the holes easily recognized. A line of squared posts placed five to eight feet apart ran around the circumference of the building making it apparent that Whitman had employed the fur-trade type of construction of grooved posts between which were inserted horizontal poles and split logs tenoned at the ends. These horizontal filling pieces were in this case three to five inches in diameter, mostly cottonwood from along the nearby stream. It will be noted that this was the same type of construction as that employed in the lean-to of the first house, except that the lean-to had a plank floor while the ground served as a floor in the shop. Along the southeast side of the shop the post holes were double. The poles which formed the sides of the building must have been placed between the double posts, so that grooving the posts was unnecessary. Rail fences built in this manner are often seen even today. The inside post may have functioned for the attachment of shelves or some similar purpose. Most of the posts were ten or eleven inches wide and extended fifteen to eighteen inches below floor 3 level.

On the west side hinging off the northwest corner post there was probably a door, large enough to admit a wagon. Several of the sketches of the mission show such a door. In the southwest quarter of the ruin three eight-inch-square post holes are all that remains of the forge. The posts which stood here were probably about waist high and were boarded up between to make a triangular-shaped box, six feet four inches long by two feet wide. This was filled with dirt, forming a platform on which the forge fire was built.

The building was in the shape of a rough half circle. The dimensions from east to west were approximately twenty-six feet and from north to south thirty-two and one-half feet. The type of construction used required few or no nails and, very few have been found in the ruin. Also window glass is lacking except on floor 2 and above, making it unlikely that the building possessed glassed windows. If windows existed they were probably closed by solid shutters. Window glass, a valuable item in mission times, was probably reserved for dwellings. There was no sign of an adobe chimney, and the shop may have lacked a chimney of any sort-the smoke being allowed to escape. through a hole in the dirt roof.

 

Floor 3 of the blacksmith shop [corral], letters indicating post holes. Post hole "a" has not been dug out, its location and size being marked by the white paper.

NPS photo

 

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