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Palo Alto 2007
February 2007 saw us working at Palo Alto again.
We have just arrived at the Park on February 7 and Randy and I got to play tourist for a little while.
It wasn't long and we could hear and then saw this odd beast chomping through the brush.
It has teeth! This belongs to the US Forestry Service and it will flat out trim the place for you. Without it, there are some of the places we could never have gotten into.
Thursday, February 8, 2007 8, 2007
Rolando talks to all of the crew before we head out. Stay on line, nothing - even trash - gets taken from the park, leave the critters alone....
John C. recovers a musket ball.
Monica, an archeologist from Matamoros Mexico, recovers a copper, Mexican, canister ball.
Kevin located this button
It is missing the shank and is plain of the face.
The crew lined up to start a sweep.
Randy keeps better notes than most of us, pausing at the end of a sweep to jot down his finds.
Note the ribbon blowing on the pole. The wind never dies in Texas, or at least that is the way it seems.
You can see the ribbon whipping in the wind as we took lunch one day as well.
Once again, some items were to be found on the surface, like this iron, American, cannister ball. You can see how the salt has caused it to start falling apart.
Ed found this Mexican coin.
You can make out the 18 in the date and part of the Liberty Cap on the back.
This is a similar one in the museum in Mexico.
Doug Scott recovers a dropped musket ball.
Doug is best known for his work at the Little Big Horn Battlefield (formerly Custer Battlefield). He is the one that organized the metal detector surveys there that contributed greatly to the information known about that battle.
One of two Eagle buttons that Randy found. This type button was in use by the Americans at the battle, or it could have been lost later as it is documented that troops where at this site during the Civil War. We also recovered several CW period 3-ringers, a couple of them in the field where his buttons came from. These are earlier issue buttons than the CW but you just can't say for sure.
another sign of the CW troops, an 1861 Half Dime.
We had a few cool days with heavy fog after it had rained on Saturday.
The wet ground becomes mud gumbo that sticks like crazy. Fifteen minutes or more was needed to clean your boots at the end of the day. Note the fog has never lifted all day.
Foggy group photo out in the field.
A beautiful US Great Coat button that was found.
The back mark is "United States"
This rattlesnake lost his life to the mower. The part we found was over three feet long and his fangs where huge!
Brett found a neat little watch key.
They said the Mexicans had a lot of Moorish influence and that the fist like this was common in the Moorish culture. It was found in an area where many American cannister balls and some dropped Mexican musket balls were found.
Kevin found this thin Mexican button
and then a second one about six feet from the first. He couldn't get lucky like Randy did in 2005 and find the buckle or anything else in the immediate area.
Now here is a first for me. I have never seen anyone try to talk on the phone while digging in this manner.
Robert dug a nice 12-pounder frag.
Then he dug
the little piece that held the brush that was used for cleaning the priming pan out on the flintlock muskets. These were hung from the breast plates but this was all that was found.
Randy found the iron rowel from a spur, possibly from one of the Mexicans.
Here was what we all wanted to find.
Not a cannister ball but a real 4-pounder Mexican Copper cannon ball. Rolando, who just happens to be the Park Archeologist and Cultural Resources Officer was the lucky dog that found it. That smile tells it all.
On Wednesday, we finished up and went to Matamoros. This mural is on the wall of the building next to the restaurant we ate at.
This "food" was available just off the sidewalk. Makes me glad I am a vegetarian!
We had a great time and we covered pretty much all of the ground we were supposed to. Maybe we will do another dig in a couple of years.