Time Sifters Archaeology Society Newsletter January 2022

JANUARY-2022 PRESERVATION  EDUCATION  RESEARCH  INSPIRE Dear Member: Welcome back!! We hope everyone has had a good Holiday Season. We enjoyed our times with our family and friends. We start off 2022 with a presentation about how climate change is affecting archaeology … “Lake Mead Gives up Her Secrets” by Dave Alberg on the 19th. Also we are in the process of repurposing the “Corneilia Futor Memorial Student Paper Competition”. More info shortly on how we have come up with a new exciting program. Thank you for being a Time Sifters member. Darwin “Smitty” Smith, President [email protected] January 19 - at 6:00 PM – ZOOM. Lake Mead Gives up Her Secrets David Alberg Chief of Resource Management and Compliance at Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Arizona and Nevada. The largest reservoir in the Photos: Wikipedia and United States, Lake Mead was David Alberg formed September 30, 1935, by the Hoover Dam on the Instructions for real time viewing: Colorado River. It sits in the Register in advance for this meeting: states of Nevada and Arizona, Go to the Time Sifters website, www.timesifters.org and click on 24 miles east from Las Vegas. the registration url. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing It is the largest reservoir in information about joining the meeting. the United States. It serves water to the states of Arizona, California, and Nevada, as well as some of Mexico, providing sustenance to nearly 20 million people and large areas of farmland. The lake hides many interesting and forgotten things including the ruins of the town of St. Thomas, NV and a B29 WWII bomber. Because of climate change the water level is at its all-time lowest and divers are investigating these and other interesting sites.

Did You Know? A Sticky Situation: The Turpentine Industry in North Florida Reprinted by permission from Southwest Florida Archaeological Society & FPAN North Central. Florida Memory hard work and dangerous. the company store, and of Collecting the gum was very course, could not leave their labor intensive and working employment until they settled the still was hot and very their debt. Convict laborers dirty work. The workers, who were usually treated very in some cases may have been harshly and their living leased convicts, lived in conditions varied, but usually camps situated close to the were not very hospitable. The area they were currently camps were usually very remote working. The housing was and not well regulated by the considered temporary and was state government. usually poorly constructed. If they were paid (which would There were tools and supplies that were very specific to the The turpentine industry (or naval stores naval store industry. The industry) has best known its roots in tool of the North Carolina trade is in the mid- probably the 1800s. Workers herty cup, would scar which was longleaf pine developed by trees (the scars Dr. Charles are often Holmes Herty, referred to as Sr. in 1909. cat faces) which Dr. Herty’s would cause method for the gum, or gathering gum resin, from the Florida Memory was more economical, tree to run. allowing for a They would attach a cup and higher yield of resin and gutters to the tree to collect the extended use of the trees. resin. This resin would then be Other tools specific to the distilled in a large still to trade include box axes, dippers create pitch. The reason that this and pulls. A box ax was used industry is often referred to as to cut boxes into the base of “naval stores” has its origins the tree to collect the resin in the fact that the majority of prior to the use of cups. Dippers this pitch was used to caulk were used to collect the resin holes in wooden boats and to FPAN from these boxes and pulls coat rigging to help it last longer on were used to cut the cat face ocean-going vessels. Eventually the not include the leased convicts), scars into the tree. Eventually, trees stopped producing any usually they would receive all the resin collected would go significant amount of resin and their pay in the form of to the still to be processed into the turpentiners gradually company script or coin. This various grades of turpentine to moved south to new stands of could only be used at the be put into barrels and trees. After some time, in the company commissary, where shipped off to be used as late 1800s, they made their they could also purchase ingredients in a variety of way into Florida’s pine forests. items on credit. Many workers products. Many early products As you can imagine, this was found themselves in debt to Continued on page 3 ...

Continued from page 2 ... VapoRub). growth longleaf forest survived. In 1923 Today on many of the trees in Turpentine … the convict Florida’s old growth forests you leasing can still see the old cat face contained turpentine, some of program scars. While hiking many of which seem bizarre today. was these same forests you might abolished in come across pieces of herty Vicks VapoRub, which you Florida cup or similar metal cups that can still find on store shelves due, in once collected the resin (and today, originally contained part, to the as a reminder, it is against the turpentine. In fact, at many of death of law to remove artifacts, like turpentine archaeological sites, Martin Talbert. He was a herty cups, from state and fragments of the cobalt blue convict that was killed at a federal land!). glass from the small jars of turpentine camp as a result of Vicks VapoRub. Apparently its very harsh physical punishment. The turpentine industry use was popular at the time By the mid-1900s the industry helped to shape a fascinating and many company commis- started its decline due, in time in Florida’s history and saries carried it. part, to the advent of steel has had a lasting effect on our ships and the development of environment and our culture. Many household cleaners synthetic chemicals. By the Today wildlife and habitat contained turpentine as well 1970s the industry had pretty restoration efforts are being and many people would mix much vanished from the Florida undertaken to restore these turpentine with beeswax to landscape. However, the stands of forest to their previous make their own furniture turpentine industry left a lasting state, prior to being worked for polish. It was also used legacy on the landscape. This turpentine. medicinally to treat burns, industry was very destructive bites and stings. However, to the longleaf ecosystem and Reprinted by permission from today it has been found to be the many plants and animals Southwest Florida Archaeological carcinogenic and there are that depended on it. Fewer Society & FPAN North Central. strict guidelines for the proper than three million acres of old handling of turpentine (it is no longer an ingredient in Vicks Liberty Trail: Walking Trails at SC Battlefield Parks. The Liberty Trail and its Sources: Hallowed Ground, American Battlefield Trust partners have broken ground and Colunbia Metro on trails at four significant Revolutionary War sites across South Carolina: Ft. Fair Lawn, Camden, Waxhaws, and Hanging Rock. These sites, along with Eutaw Springs, are being realized as new battlefield parks in the first phase of the Liberty Trail. More than 200 battles and skirmishes occurred in South Carolina during the war, from the Lowcountry to the Midlands and Upstate. The Revolutionary War touched nearly every county in the state. The Liberty Trail is an innovative driving route to connect battlefields and tell the captivating and inspiring stories of this trans- formative chapter of American History

Board of Officers: Lifetime: $350 Pay online at: Directors Darwin \"Smitty\" Smith, President Individual: $25 WWW.TimeSifters.org Sherry Svekis, Vice President Family: $35 Or mail checks to: Mary S. Maisel, Secretary Student: $10 Time Sifters, Inc. Laura Harrison, Treasurer Supporting $50 PO Box 5283 Karen Jensen, Membership Sarasota, FL. 34277 Marion Almy Jean Louise Lammie Evelyn Mangie Copyright © 2022 Time SiftersArchaeology Society,Inc., All rights reserved.