by Daniel Rhodes

Field blog September 4 & 6

As the semester continues for the field school, we find ourselves making progress.

Tuesday didn't start out all that well, so I knew today wasn't going to be easy. Two of my classmates Michael and Connor were ill which doubled the work on the two of us Sarah and I, who were ready to go along with Dr. Dumas not that I mind; I live for this kind of work now. We continued our shovel tests along the Southern tract we had plotted in that past few weeks. As most of you know summer weather here in Alabama can be unpredictable. It started raining a little, so we shrugged it off and continued shovel testing where we had left off the previous week. Then it began to rain more and by that, I mean a lot. It started raining so much we were forced to take cover in the pavilion nearby (I don't know who built it, but I need to find out so I can send them a thank you note.) While we waited for the rain to pass, we talked about all sorts of things and took a few pictures (Sometimes you have to take selfies.) After the storm had subsided to a tolerable amount we continued with our shovel tests, I was hoping that the heavy rain would loosen the soil and make it easier to dig I was sadly mistaken instead of nice easy to screen soil samples we got a nice bucket full of mud (Sounds incredible right?). We shovel tested one more spot before calling it a day. We were all thoroughly soaked by the time we had packed up for the day. We stopped for Gatorade on the way back to campus then we parted ways for the day. When I got back to my apartment, I took an incredibly hot shower then an incredibly refreshing nap. When I woke up, I had enough energy to go to a movie the History Department had invited students to view. (I can never resist a Hitchcock movie.) It was Shadow of a Doubt. After that was over, I called it a night and fell asleep. The perfect end to a long day.

Thursday started out a lot like Tuesday; it had been raining here all day on Wednesday. I believe the rain gauge I looked at said we had gotten five inches of rain. But it was dry enough for us to go into the field and continue our shovel tests My two ill classmates returned although they didn't sound good at all (I'm sure I'm going to get whatever they had in the day or so. So, I have that to look forward to.) We began with the spot we started on Tuesday, Michael and Connor got that spot while Sarah and I moved on to the next place on the tract. One spot Sarah and I dug in wasn't very deep at all. We call a hole complete when we hit the chalk layer, that's the hardest part of the soil, and it's challenging to get through without specialized equipment. The Spot Michael and Connor had was incredibly deep and even after we left I still don't know if they found the chalk layer or not. The possible reason behind that could be any number of things it could have been merely a low spot in the ground, but that seems unlikely since the two previous places we had searched were only about 10 meters away and weren't anywhere near as deep. Perhaps we stumbled upon a trench or a construction pit of some kind? Once Sarah and I had finished our spot, we moved to the next one. This one was a lot more difficult because it could happen to land on the gravel road that leads into Fort Tombecbe. We could hardly get any soft soil out of it mainly because it had been compacted by so many vehicles coming and going over the years. Another reason was we hit bricks that been left over from when the nearby brick plant was open. We called it a short day because we wanted to attend a lecture given by Marie-Michele Deraspe on the relationship between Quebec and Alabama given by the political science department. So, we all had a short time to get back, shower, and get to the presentation before it started. It was a fascinating presentation. I honestly had no idea how much of a connection there was between Quebec and Alabama, so I found it very enlightening. Upon further investigation on the subject, I discovered that the Governor of the territory at the time, Bienville and his brothers were from Montreal Quebec and had ordered the construction of Fort Tombecbe. An amazing and interesting coincidence in my opinion. After that, we were free to leave, so I went home, typed my blog entries and then quickly fell asleep.