Digging into the past: Archaeologists investigate site of proposed roundabout

On Friday afternoon, archaeologists from the Michigan Department of Transportation got a look into everyday life 130 years ago in Adrian while digging up the corner at East Church and South Broad streets.

In preparation for the expected construction of the roundabout planned to go in at that intersection, MDOT sent a team of archaeologists to conduct an archaeological and environmental review of the site before the big digging starts. According to MDOT archaeologist Christine Stephenson, under federal and state regulations any time a project is federally funded or permitted a review such as this is conducted.

The roundabout would be built using federal funds.

Stephenson, along with James Robertson, Adrianne Daggett and Dan Lauterbur, said what they found during the digging were some unique details to an old home. They uncovered two cisterns, which were constructed for collecting water, and the foundation and cellar floor of a home that may have existed around 1860.

Stephenson said some might think these are mundane things, but it is truly a look into a part of everyday life from a bygone era.

“This is a first for me,” said Stephenson of finding the cisterns underground. She has been with MDOT for 12 years.

The cisterns were made of brick and had a pipe leading into them in which rain water would have been collected and later used.

Knowing there might be some historical or cultural significance at a site, MDOT employs the team to first conduct research and then start digging. Through records and archives the team got an idea that there was a house at that corner at one time. It was through using historical maps that they were able to get a good idea of the house’s history. According to the maps, the house dated at least to 1888, when the maps were first put together, but it might be older than that.

The MDOT team will be at the site into next week doing further investigation into the cisterns. Once they are finished documenting everything that is found there and photographing it, they will issue a report to the State Historic Preservation Office.

After that, what is there will be dug up and taken away in preparation for establishing a more stable foundation for the roundabout.

But that doesn’t mean the history at the site will be lost and forgotten. What the archaeologists are doing is preventing that.

“If we don’t document it properly then it would be gone forever,” said Daggett.

The team does not know the timeline for the next work project to occur at the site, but according to the MDOT informational meeting held two months ago the roundabout project should start becoming more of a reality next year.