Historic Archaeology at the Reed Farmstead Site

The West Virginia Department of Transportation, Division of Highways and the Cultural Resources Section of Michael Baker Jr., Inc.  welcomes you to historic archaeology at the Reed Farmstead site!  We hope that you find your tour both exciting and informative!

This continuously updated web site will invite you to observe and participate in the archaeological excavation, analysis of artifacts, and reconstruction of past lifeways at the Reed Farmstead site.  Please visit us again and again!  This web site was last updated on 04/05/00.

What and Where is Reed Farmstead?

The Reed Farmstead archaeological site, situated east of Baker, West Virginia, is located near the Lost River in the mountainous uplands of Hardy County.  It contains the archaeological  remains of a 19th-century rural farmstead including the foundations of  three log houses a possible springhouse (or cold storage building), possible barn an additional outbuilding and several cultural features.

The Reed Farmstead sites protected and isolated location within a hollow on the foot slopes of an unnamed ridge has helped to preserve the site from more recent disturbances.  Aside from animal pasturing and some timbering, no post-occupational activities have been observed here.  As a result, the site possesses a high degree of archaeological integrity.  This suggests that the site has the potential to yield important information in history that would not be otherwise available through historic documentation.

Previous excavations  revealed a wide array of 19th century, largely household and farm-related artifacts as well as the remains of at least four and possibly as many as six structures.  A raised earthen berm that may have enclosed either a barnyard and/or a cultivation plot was also observed.

Recent excavations  Recent Excavations were initiated in late October 1998 and were completed in early December 1999. 

Data Recovery Methods

Research Issues
 

The Reed Farmstead site provides an excellent opportunity to glimpse and reconstruct the lifeways of rural farming families during the antebellum through early postbellum years of the 19th century.  Additionally, the agricultural practices among landholders in the Hardy County uplands of this period have gone largely undocumented in favor of the larger plantation-based agricultural economy of the region.